


In the Closing of the Eyes

by AuthorSJ



Series: CODE [1]
Category: CODE:, EXO (Band), Miss A, VIXX, Wonder Girls
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Other, Romance, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 66,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9706319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorSJ/pseuds/AuthorSJ
Summary: If you would like to see characters, or ask any questions, feel free to go here: eyesthenovel.tumblr.comIn the Closing of the Eyes, formally known as CODE, is set in the bright, futuristic city of Houhn and follows the life of Sooji Bae as she navigates her final and most stressful year in the Ryounin School, a college for the exceptionally gifted student. As she ventures on with her studies in architecture, she discovers that her already faulty heart is starting to give out due to the extreme amounts of stress she has to endure in order to keep up with everything she loves.However, she soon discovers that she is part of the Nameless, a group of people with special abilities who are considered the lowest in society due to an ancient stigma. How will she be able to handle the pressure of her new, low ranking in society? What's more is that her roommate, Jisung Nam, is secretly a Nameless-hating student studying genetics, who would gladly experiment on others like her in order to better the lives of the Ghommon. Will they be able to settle their differences and remain friends?What will happen to Sooji when she faces Night Crawler Lords, Fierce Engels and their children, and the stigma of being a Nameless?





	1. CODE: BAKJWI

**Author's Note:**

> *Please note that warnings will be given at the beginnings of each chapter, need not worry!*  
> *Please also note that major characters will be added as chapters go on!*

 

                  It was midday and the air was cool and quiet, and the Engel Noctis was busy reading in his study when a knock came at his door. In an effort to pretend to the knocker that he wasn’t there, Noctis kept quiet and continued to read, but the knock came once again and disturbed him. He sighed, not because he was bothered by a visitor, but because he knew exactly who it was behind that door.

                  “Come in.” he gently closed the book that sat at his desk with as much patience as he could muster.

                  “Hello, older brother.” Came a light voice as his equally light figure entered the room. “Oh, are you in a bad mood? Should I go?”

                  “No, you’re here, might as well tell me what you came here for.” He breathily replied, sheer exhaustion was kicking in immediately.

                  “Every time I come into this room, I feel like you have more and more plants. How do you ever manage to keep them all looking so bright?”

                  “The more useless people I find creeping around here, the more I feel the need to turn them into plants. I do promise to turn them back once I find a use for them.”

                  “But you’ve never turned anyone back!” Lucis laughed, “May I sit?”

                  Noctis gestured to the chair in front of him and folded his thin hands over the book and waited patiently for his brother to seat himself and become comfortable. Lucis was, according to Noctis, his biggest enemy. Polar opposites in just about every way. He knew that from birth, Lucis was always the favorite of the family because he could carry on the legacy of their father, who wielded the sun. Now-a-days the sun held its own, but Lucis held the power of light and day in the palms of his hands while Noctis held the darkness and the coolness that was the night. Even though Noctis did currently hold the crown of Hoehn, he always held in the back of his mind that Lucis would want to take up the throne for himself. Lucis was also very pleasant to look at, being young in appearance and generally admirable, and in being so, won favor with the people he talked to. Noctis, however, preferred the term ‘intimidating’ for himself. While also very beautiful, Noctis seemed to be the striking kind of beauty that could make the Ghommon, that is common people, anxious.

                  “The reason I came here was to ask a grand favor of you.” His words tip-toed around the room as much as his eyes did, darting from plant to plant and then back to Noctis, “You see, I am in need of an Engel crystal.”

                  Noctis was taken back by his brother’s statements. “For what?” he demanded. His voice suddenly jumped and his heart rate increased. It was after those words left his own mouth that Noctis realized what he wanted with the crystal- immediate, irreversible power. With this much power in his hands he could surely take over the throne, killing him if he willed, and ruling the kingdom however he wanted.

                  “I wanted to keep it nearby.”

                  “For what purpose?” Noctis calmed himself down.

                  “There is a rumor floating on the wind that the Cyn beasts could be returning soon.”

                  “Those foul things we threw into the pits of hell ages ago?” Noctis wrinkled his brows a bit. “How could they have ever returned?” His hand balled itself into a fist and he rest his chin on it, unamused and unconvinced at the story his brother was giving.

                  “Well, with the deaths of Anima and Magnus, the seal was partially broken.” Lucis began to rub his hands together- nervousness was never something he could hide, especially from his own brother.

                  “I have shards of one of them in a secret place,”-Noctis was cut off by Lucis, saying, “But I would… think that a full one is better for this purpose.”

                  Pausing for a minute, his gaze steady on his younger brother, Noctis began again. “Very well, I hid the crystal in the old palace somewhere.”

                  “Oh, please tell me where.”

                  “It was ages and ages ago, I don’t remember where I hid it. I’m sure one of the servants still living there knows where it is. If you go there, I’m sure if you asked they would be more than happy to show the Prince of Light to its location.”

                  “Oh, my dear older brother you certainly are the best.” Lucis’ wide smile bloomed across his face as he stood. “I will have to leave soon then, since the journey will take a long time.”

                  “It would be a great opportunity to show your son as well.”

                  “Ah,” Lucis stopped in his thoughts, “that’s right, he has been ill these days. If I left him here would you be willing to keep an eye on him? He’s old enough to take care of himself but checking up on him once in a while wouldn’t be so-”

                  “ _Please_ , get Hongbin to keep up with him. If he’s sick he needs a healer by his side, not me.”

                  “An even better idea. Oh, _what_ would I do without you, Noctis?”

                  “Rule this kingdom. Terribly.” Noctis flashed a small smile before running his finger along the edge of the book.

                  “Still reading old books, are we?”

                  “Goodbye, Lucis.”  Noctis began to bury himself in the dusty texts again.

                  “Thanks again for telling me where the crystal is.” He waved as he closed the door behind him.

                  Shutting the book with a quick thump of the front cover, Noctis exhaled deeply and let the silence surround him once more as he collected his thoughts. It was also at this time that the automatic watering system for his plants turned on, and he watched as the droplets fell down from their colored leaves and into the soil they were planted in, each one of them labeled with a peculiar name- the people they had been previously. In a spur of the moment, his mind grasped an idea and he sat straight up in his chair, looking for his personal assistant among the clutter of his desk.

                  “Nyx where are you?” he called for it, and from behind the plants it crawled his way, making small clinking sounds as it walked along his desk and in front of him. “Call Soohyuk.”

                  “Message chatting, voice chatting, or video chatting?” it asked.

                  A curiosity about the PAs themselves was that their form was never consistent among all of them. When they are first obtained, it begins as a metallic cube that floats and follows the owner for a long time. After the owner and it create a bond- which happens at different points for different persons- it will transform into something else- usually something that causes the bond or resembles the owner in some way.  

                  “Voice.” He replied and immediately the small personal assistant began to hum a short tune before the connection was made.

                  “Noctis, what a pleasant surprise,” the dark, deep voice of his friend came from the personal assistant’s speaker, “I was just thinking about you, how convenient!”

                  “Soohyuk,” Noctis’ own voice boomed. “I need to meet with you, when is the most convenient?”

                  “How about right now? I haven’t found a new hobby these days, so some company would be nice. We can meet at the Night Crawler’s bar near the edge of Doull2.”

                  “A bar?” he chuckled, swiveling in his chair, “At this hour?”

                  “Why not? Night Crawlers have to go _somewhere_ during the daytime.”

                  “Ah, yes,” he found himself smiling as he sat up from his chair, and his personal assistant reassembled itself into a headpiece and attached on his ears. “I shall meet you there in fifteen minutes.”

                  “See you soon. Ah, right, the password for the door is ‘bakjwi’”.

                  “You never change the password, do you?” Noctis chuckled as he left his offices.

                  As he exited onto the city streets, he made his way down the stairs and waited on the sidewalk for his hovercraft to come to his location. The car made a smooth stop before it opened the door and he stepped inside.

                  “Where to, sir?” the robotic driver in the front questioned as it began to lift into the air and merge into the traffic.

                  “Doull2, there’s a Night Crawler bar there named ‘Kowa’.”

                  “As you wish, sire.”

                  As the vehicle continued on, he couldn’t help but stare out of the window and watch the city go on underneath him. It was a wonderful maze of colored buildings and cheerful thoughts. He smiled. For sure, this was his finest opus, his life’s greatest work- this city was a testament to everything he had fought for and worked hard to accomplish within the last five thousand years.

                  “What a fine city it is!” the driver stated. “You have done such wonderful work.”

                  He only smiled as he continued to observe the city below it was within only a short time that his vehicle reached the bar, and the craft descent onto the street, and he was let out.

                  “Bakjwi.”  He spoke at the front door and was let in immediately.

                  Noctis was fond of this particular bar, and Soohyuk knew it. While the interior was dark and moody, the unique lighting and the calm music playing was something that always made him feel at ease. It was a real blast from the past for them in particular. Living ten thousand years or more gets old fast, and reliving more memorable times helps ease the pain of the present.

                  “There you are.” Soohyuk pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning against. “I was wondering if you were going to whisk yourself here but I see that you had decided upon the hovercar. I could have sent you my driver, you know.”

                  “Last time you did that,” Noctis playfully grabbed the back of his friend’s neck, “they talked my ear off. Besides, whisking myself here takes some energy.”

                  “Let’s go onto the balcony room, there aren’t many people here today, so there’s no real need to worry about secrecy.” Soohyuk suggested and Noctis followed him onto the third floor.

                  They ordered what their tastes desired, and once they were left alone, Noctis spoke after a bit of silence. It was never in Soohyuk’s interest to pressure his friend to speak- having known him for his entire lifespan, he, according to Soohyuk, hasn’t changed since the day they met, both in physical appearance and in nature, so he was patient.

                  “There is something concerning me these days.”

                  Soohyuk rose his eyebrows, as if to pretend that he was at all surprised. It seemed that every time Noctis called him, it was to complain about his troubles. Soohyuk was more than willing to lend a listening ear because while time grew old, problems never did.

                  “Lucis seems really eager to take over my position.”

                  Soohyuk’s brows dropped and he became comfortable in his seat, leaning a little to one side as he listened to Noctis’ story, eager to get all of the details. It wasn’t like neither of them had time to spare, but rather, they both had too much more time left. Eternity always seemed longer when you spend it alone.

                  “Today he asked me about my Engel crystal. As you know-” Noctis paused.

                  “That’s right, I _do_ know. I’ve known everything about you for the past ten thousand years, so skip it and tell me what’s _really_ bugging you.”

                  Noctis couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s words, and continued, “I have a few broken crystals in my possession but if they are not whole they are really no use- it grows plants really well if you stick a shard into a pot though.”

                  Soohyuk laughed loudly and the drinks they had ordered arrived on a small, floating platform.

                  “Has your collection of plants grown at all?” he seemed really interested in hearing about it as he took a drink.

                  “Considerably. I’m up to sixty-two plants now.”

                  “You are something else.”

                  “But allow me to continue-“

                  “Yes, please do.”

                  “Lucis had asked me about my crystal, and of course I told him that I had left it in the old home.”

                  “Back on Rayok?”

                  “Yes, back on Rayok.”

                  “So, that’s it? You just gave it up to him?”

                  “Actually, quite the opposite. You see, I hid that crystal because I need to use it for something else.”

                  “Then why not tell him that you’re going to use it.”

                  “Knowing him, he wouldn’t be satisfied with that answer. If he knew I had it close by he would definitely try to take it.”

                  “So where do you actually have it?”

                  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about today.”

 

-                -                -                -                -                -                -                -

 

                  “I’m home!” her voice called into the apartment.                                   

                  “Hey Sooji!” another voice called back from the side room.

                  “How’s Izzy doing?” she called into the air.

                  “He’s almost done repairing Doodle.” She replied back and Sooji popped her head into her roommate’s room and watched for a moment before continuing down the short hallway to her room at the end.

                  Almost tradition, she placed her hand on the third room scanner to her left and it denied her access. Placing her hand on her own door scanner, it opened and the door disappeared into the wall as she entered the room.

                  “HM, any messages?” she called out to the House Maiden- the system that ran the house, which seemed like a cross between a maid, a butler, and an answering machine, except that it only kept data, and not videos save for when visitors leave them at the door.

                  “No messages, ma’am.” It replied. Not everyone had one in their house, but as long as Sooji’s father was paying for it, it seemed fine for her to have one.

                  While she hadn’t seen her father for as far back as her memory reaches, he wrote often. He would send a few messages every month detailing his excursions around the world for his researching job, what types of interesting plants he found and creatures he saw, and any new breakthroughs in his research. With the message, he would also send her a bank deposit. Whatever kind of job he had, Sooji always got paid every month, the same amount, to cover rent and some other basic expenses. It was one thing that she didn’t have looming over her head, and she was extremely grateful for it. Though, she would often ponder, she would rather give up the monthly rent if she could only see him once. But, for now, Sooji would have to be content. If Sooji _were_ to write back to his messages, she would get simple responses, but he would never answer the request for a photo of himself. She had stopped asking at the age of eleven, and she was twenty-two now.

                  “Repairs are finished!” she heard her personal assistant speak in the next room, and immediately it came crawling along the walls and dropped onto her shoulder, transforming from its spider-like state, to a cat-like one.

                  Sooji poked her head into her roommate’s room once more and she watched as the small cube transformed into an owl-shape, fluttering its metallic wings about and prancing about on her desk.

                  “When’s your next class?” she pondered to her roommate.

                  “I’m busy right now, actually, I’m sorry.” Jisung replied in a tired tone.

                  “That’s okay.” She nodded, “But let’s get lunch together sometime, or order dinner in! I feel like I haven’t seen you in a little while!”

                  “Sure!” she smiled and Sooji returned to her room to grab her supplies before heading out the door again.

                  “Welcome humans, mutants, and above all else- my students- to Physics 551: Advanced Nuclear Physics and Dark Matter Theories.” The middle-aged professor’s voice casually spoke as it echoed through the large, semi-circular lecture hall that was more visible sterile than a hospital room. “Just kidding- you should have seen the looks on your faces. Welcome to Genetics 421: The Advanced Study of Genetics in Modern Life.” Sooji could hear the recording of Jisung’s class come from her room.

                  “Miss,” the HM called to her and broke her from her eavesdropping, “It is best advised to take an Automatic Jacket, the forecast calls for rain.”

                  “Thank you.” She said and the HM handed her an AJ pin and she stuck it to her sweater, bidding her roommate goodbye before she left for her class.

                  As the year and the semester come to a quick close, both Jisung and her roommate Sooji seem to find themselves in a tizzy- both are battling tough decisions in their own schools as well as final exams. While Jisung studies Neurobiology and Genetics in the Krasis School on the western side of the Doull1, Sooji studies architecture design in the Ryounin School on the northeastern side of Doull1. Both Jisung and Sooji, going to school and living in Doull1, gave them level one clearance.

                  Jisung watched the recording of her class diligently from desk, skipping through the video until she had found just what she was looking for: all the while the light emanating from her Clear Screen computer had burned away at her retinas tiring her. Her witch-hazel irises finally were able to catch a rest as she gently rubbed her eyelids, she had been at this since yesterday’s morning. Her efforts seemed confusing as had heard the recording play at least a thousand times over. There was only a few weeks of school left; what exactly was she looking for?

                  “This class will be unlike any other class you have ever had, I _promise_.” Her professor’s mid-toned voice spoke up as he finally stood from his seat, shoving his hand somewhat into his front pockets. “First of all, this well be one of, if not the _only_ time that I will be meeting you in his classroom, or, hopefully for me, _ever._ Aside, of course, from the final test. On the large ClearScreen behind me, you will find the assignment and I will read it off to you so you or your little PA’s beside you can record it for future reference- or not: we’re all adults here and it’s completely up to you whether you get this information down or not but do _not_ , under any circumstance, come crawling to me three days before the final asking me what the assignment was. That kind of thing happened a few years back and the kid just thought I’d hand it over -I am not afraid to fail any one of you.”

                  She had found it once more- the assignment overview.

                  “Now, your assignment for the year is to pick a group of intelligent inhabitants of this planet other than the group you belong to. By that I mean anything from humans, of which I am one, modified humans, which you can find down at the museum or something, _Nameless_ and all that, or any of their subgroups such as frougs, the Night Crawlers- just _some_ type of intelligent beings currently occupying this spinning orb we are standing on- and that does not include the lesser animals such as pets or wildlife, although, I _could_ contest that by saying some of the students in this classroom are an example as to why that could be the exception but I digress.” He professor laughed at his own joke for a brief moment before continuing. “That’s the assignment. Some examples to get the gears in your head moving could be humans, calico, modified humans, or the Nameless, arena workers, gold horns, Engel types- I’m sure you get what I mean. If you have a question about the one you’re thinking of, come to me and I can enlighten you as to whether or not you’ve made a bad life choice.”

                  She had chosen Nameless.

 

                  And that was the problem.

                  Nameless, you see, were a group of people who once had names, birthdays, histories- but now their records and memories were wiped clean in order to use the for government-funded experiments, which, if gone right, give them an entirely new life with a set of powers and abilities unlike anything seen before. However, while most of the people in the experiments are volunteers, the Ghommon, that is common people, still hold the taboo that anybody who possess powers that are not indirectly passed down from their parents are criminals or prisoners of the enemy during wartime, which is who the experiments used to be solely on. Nameless, however, don’t usually live long due to the side effects of the experiments, while some randomly end up living for quite the long time- almost _too_ long.

                  The recording continued: “Ah, yes, the questions for your assignment. Pay attention if you want-” his voice trailed off as she lost focus and began to space out.

                  In the back of the lecture hall, a small bell went off (this caught Jisung’s attention again), and the student’s desk began to glow a soft, light blue color- the signal that the student had a question. The camera view panned to show the student at the desk, who stood up when addressed.

                  “Sir,” the teacher’s robotic assistant spoke, “a student has a question.”

                  “Yes?” the professor called and pointed to that person, “Your name is?”

                  Watching intently at the boy who had been seated behind her at the time,

                  “ID number H-5-4-5-8, Zhan-”

                  There he was. Zhang Yixing, Nameless ID number H5458. H which stood for healer, but as far as the rest of the numbers go, Jisung was unaware. He was, indeed, a higher-ranking healer, and in being so had powers that surpassed other in the same field. Healers were a very rare type of Nameless and it was a privilege among the Nameless to be a healer. Yixing had become her friend during her early days of researching the paper, when she had met him in the park taking care of the elderly, who seemed to get younger each time she saw them. Healers, like most modern doctors, studied one particular field to work on and in his case, it was cell-healing. He could heal bones, cuts and wounds by using the cells of the person to regenerate themselves at an alarmingly fast rate- the catch with Nameless Healers was that, Ghommon people would not use them because of the taboo unless they signed a few forms. Jisung was not one of the people to sign the forms, however, prejudices ran deep in her skin and it was hard for her to let go of them.

                  “Ah, you’re-” The professor in the recording interrupted, “-never mind, what’s your question, kid?”

                  “Do you have anything about the system of grading?”

                  “Excellent question,” the professor turned to his assistant, “put that slide on the clearscreen, Waldo. It looks like _somebody_ in this class wants to do well.”

                  “Yes, sir.” The robotic assistant answered and transformed into the shape of a small cat and made its way to the control panel of the clearscreen board and switched the slide that was on the screen.

                  “You know, I hate cats.” He said to it and a few calico students in the room mumbled to each other, their expressions souring and their ears pulling backwards as the lecture continued. “But this is the grading system for this class, and it’s quite simple if I do say so myself.” His voice became deaf to Jisung’s ears once more and when she resumed, it was the ending:            “I will ask that you use your desk scanner to scan-” Jisung paused the video and looked to her left and watched for a minute the calendar indicated that she had only a few days left to complete the report. In front of her, was her entire report and all of her months of hard work. She wasn’t satisfied, and she wouldn’t be satisfied until every piece was perfected.

                  It was then that her personal assistant dinged and she focused on it. People who were more reserved tended to have personal assistants who replied and talked to them in various whistles, beeps and codes whereas extroverted people tended to have personal assistants, or PA’s who would talk to them in not only their language, but a developed language.

                  Jisung’s roommate would communicate to her PA using a carefully taught code, so that way she could talk to it in public but still have a private conversation with it. Trying to communicate with Jisung’s personal assistant wouldn’t go smoothly since Jisung would be very straightforward as to what she wanted the assistant to do. This makes transitioning to new PAs or borrowing someone else’s PA would cause more stress than its worth. Inhabitants of this world would usually stay with the same PA for their entire life.

                  _Bing!_ Jisung’s clear screen indicated to her once more that she received a video message and began playing it out loud.

                  “Miss Jisung Nam,” the woman’s pleasant voice spoke, “on behalf of The Krasis School and the department of Science and Neurobiology we would like to extend to you a scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to you for your excellent behavior, grades, and work during last semester and it will be effective immediately if you choose to accept it. This scholarship is good for and will continue and remain yours for the remainder of all of your studies at Krasis.”

                  “Not this again.” She sighed at her PA.

                   “If you wish to accept this award, please stop by my office on the fourth floor of the Neuroscience Department, room three hundred and twenty. I look forward to seeing you there, Miss Nami.” The pre-recorded video stopped and she looked at her calendar once more, and saw that the due date for the scholarship was during that week.

“Might as well see what all the fuss is about.” Jisung spoke to herself as she applied the AJ pin’s fastener on the back of her shirt’s collar and pressed the button on the front of it.

 

                  Taking her messenger bag, she slung it over her shoulder and the AJ included it in her protective covering. After her shoes were on, she exited the apartment and listened to the door lock before proceeding down to the first floor where her bike was docked. Despite the rain, Jisung didn’t mind having to ride her hoverbike there.

                  Arriving at the museum half an hour later, she docked the bike and walked up the large set of stairs in front of the building. The glass doors opened by themselves as she walked through. 

                  It was very quiet inside of the spotlessly clean museum, and it was always a curiosity to Jisung that there wasn’t a single soul inside that she could tell of except for the boy sitting behind the reception desk waiting patiently for her to come closer.

                  “Excuse me, miss, but museum tours are held on Tuesdays.” he asked in a pleasingly polite tone of voice, complimenting his mannered smile and upright posture.

                  “I, uh, I’m here to accept my scholarship offer?” She avoided his eyes.

                  “Ah! You must be Miss Jisung Nami, we were told to expect you.” He nodded and smiled once more, “I will ask that you put your bag through our scanner first, to ensure the safety of the museum, its guests and faculty members. Also, if you have a personal assistant with you, please put it onto the scanner belt as well.”

                  Jisung slipped the messenger bag off of her shoulders, placing both onto the moving conveyor belt. Doodle hopped itself onto the belt and held tightly onto the pocket of her bag as it disappeared behind a black curtain.

                  “Now while the scan is underway, I will ask that you fill out this short form.” He said as he handed her a clear screen, and taking the special pen, she filled out the form and singed at the bottom with a hand print, promptly handing it back. When it was finished, a special pass was created for her, and floated over her left shoulder, displaying her name and what type of pass it was: “N. Jisung – Special Guest”

                  He guided her behind a line on the floor on the other side of the desk, where she found her bag and personal assistant waiting for her.

                  “Your guide will be out momentarily to take you where you need to go.” he smiled in the same manner as before, “Please make yourself comfortable on the couch you see here until they arrive. I hope you enjoy your visit at The Eyes Museum of Creations, and congratulations, if I may say so.” And the boy resumed his seat at the desk and focused his eyes at the doorway once more.

                  “Thank you.” She mumbled.

                  Jisung could hear the careful click of men’s dress shoes on the marble floor and she could sense their approach as they became louder until they were just behind the door in the room. When it opened, the person behind it shared a smile and walked towards her, extending their hand.

                  “Welcome to The Eyes Museum of Creations,” he shook her hand and then straightened his posture again, “my ID is P-5-4-5-7-9-3-5, but for ease and comfort, please use my current given name of Jongdae.” He smiled a cat-like grin, “Welcome back Jisung.”

                  “Thanks.” She smiled unconfidently as he followed him down the hall, the door locking behind her as they proceeded further into the building and stopped in front of a glass elevator. “Do you have to say that every time I come here?”

                  He flashed his pass in front of the scanner and the elevator gears began to whir as the elevator came to their level. Turning to her, he smiled brightly, “Of course I do.”

                  “Why?” she hesitantly questioned.

                  “Protocol.” He shrugged only one side of his shoulders and proceeded out of the elevator.

                  Her personal assistant appeared out of her bag and fluttered outside and onto her shoulder next to the floating name tag.

                  “S-so,” he continued as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, “what brings you to The Eyes today? What makes you our ‘special guest’?”

                  “I got a scholarship notice and it said, oddly enough, to come here. Any reason for that?”

                  “Is that where I’m bringing you?” his voice cracked a tiny bit and Jongdae looked a bit worried, a sweat even began to break quickly on his pale brow as he rechecked the information on where he was going. “You need to see Dr. Araña then, right?”

                  “Right, what does she do here, exactly?”

                  “Doctor Araña is the head of genetics experiments at the museum. She also is the head of the genetics department over at the Krasis School. Not sure why she called you _here_ per say, for a school scholarship but I’m sure she has her reasons.”

                  The hallway was quiet and clean- it gave an unsettling feeling. There was one door at the end of the hallway and they went to it and Jongdae waited for a minute.

                  “Since she’s expecting you, y-you can go right in. Please don’t be startled by anything you see in that room.”

                  “Have you been in there before?”

                  “No, but uh, it’s _her_ you shouldn’t be startled by.” He said and knocked on the door.

                  “Come in.” a woman’s sultry voice called from behind the door.

                  Jisung entered and it took all of her power to not be startled. A clock stood in the corner ticked away at time, and though it kept a steady pace, Jisung could feel her heart skipping beats and beating faster. Her hands shook. There were a few plants here and there with names taped to them as if the plants had names.

                  “Please, have a seat.” The woman gestured to a chair in front of her desk.

                  What was – was this a human? Was this an animal? A creature? What _was_ Dr. Araña? From what Jisung could see, it certainly couldn’t be just a regular human. She had no idea what else lay behind the desk which covered most of the lower half of the woman, but what sat at the desk and was visible from the waist up was no mere Nameless.

                  She appeared almost younger than Jisung was, and her skin was as black as the night, having no variation to it but a slight sheen could be seen in the light filtering in through the windows behind her. It didn’t help that this woman’s eyes were also completely black- but the fact that the woman had three sets of eyes climbing up her forehead made Jisung uneasy- and despite not knowing exactly where the eyes were looking, she could feel that they were staring at her completely. It could be seen that she had four arms, however, and they were very thin. The two on the top were longer than those underneath, but it still frightened Jisung at the very sight. How did it come to be that this woman was the head of Genetics?  As Jisung sat, her fear was evident but the woman just smiled- but the smile didn’t seem warm or welcoming.

                  “Miss Jessica- it is alright if I use your real name, right?” the woman proceeded, her lower two arms crossing in a fold while the upper two rested themselves on the desk in front of her- on top of a file that Jisung had noticed her name was written across neatly. She began to panic internally. 

                  “That’s fine.” Jisung swallowed hard.

                  “I’m sure you’re curious about a lot of things, so feel free to ask any questions you want at this time.” She spoke, her accent was easy to get used to, “But first, allow me to properly introduce myself, my name is Doctor Zirneklene Araña, and I am the head of genetics both in the museum here and in the Krasis School.”

                  Jisung was silent, and she found herself staring. She fidgeted in her seat, trying to catch her eye to anything else in the room but everything seemed uninteresting and eye-catching all at once. She began reading the names on the plants, ‘Muren’, ‘Shihe’, ‘Brith’, ‘Turu-’

                  “I understand-” she began to speak again and Jisung looked at her.

                  “ _Damnit, which eyes am I supposed to focus on?” Jisung thought to herself._

                  “-that my appearance my startle you. It’s alright to stare at me. You may not know this, but I am the only living of my kind in the world. I am a very special blend of experiments gone right, and that fueled my curiosity for the world of genetics at a young age. There are no more like me, no more have ever existed, either. I am it.” She could hear the pride and sorrow simultaneously in her voice before she continued, “I have four legs, and four arms, and my back is covered in red marks. I have six eyes, as you can see.” She gestured to her forehead and Jisung nodded almost without her own will.

                  Jisung almost felt sorry for this woman- how many times had she rehearsed this type of spiel in the span of her lifetime.

 _“Wait,”_ Jisung thought to herself, _“How old **is** she_?”

                  Instead of looking at her any more, Jisung felt her eyes wandering around the room, again at the plants, but her gaze refocused on the doctor as she spoke up again.

                  “But enough about me, please allow me tell you about this scholarship. The committee of the school of genetics at Krasis has decided that you were the best candidate to receive this scholarship. It’s such a special thing, let me read you the benefits: _‘The recipient of this scholarship is entitled to a full ride at Krasis’ University of Genetics and Sciences. All expenses paid during the school year before the scholarship is accepted shall be pardoned and reimbursed, as well as on-site housing provided, and the scholarship holder shall be offered a paid internship with the lead professor of genetics at that time.’_ That would be me, I think you understand. That’s why I brought you to my office today.”

                  “I’m being offered all of that?” she forgot about it since the first time she had heard it and still almost couldn’t believe it.

                  “Miss Jessica Nam, I would like to offer you not only a paid internship in the program, but I wish to extend it to say that I would like you as my assistant in the museum as well. I find your interest in the Nameless and the entire program to be quite refreshing in this day and age and I think you would be very useful to us.”

                  “How did you know about my assignment?” Jisung’s heart was beating hard as she grew nervous.

                  “Everything you have been doing is reported to the council in order to make this kind of a big decision.” The doctor explained to her.

                  “I really don’t know what to say.” She caught her breath.

                  “I really do hope you will accept this, I think this is really the deal of a lifetime.”

                  Jisung thought for a moment, but with the ticking of the clock, it seemed like forever.

                  “Oh, how charming.” The woman’s voice broke her concentration and Jisung looked up to see Doodle on her desk. “What’s its name?”

                  “Doodle.” Jisung spoke and her eyes widened with slight anger. “Doodle, please get off the desk.”

                  “No, no, it’s quite alright.” She observed it closely and the owl-shaped, metal assistant hopped around on the desk showing off itself to the professor. “They are quite impressive little things, aren’t they?”

                  “Do- do you have one?” Jisung tried to make a conversation with her anywhere she could to get her mind at ease.

                  “I do. Her name is Zhishu.” She said and pointed to what Jisung thought was a figurine of a human girl on her desk. The robotic girl stood up and curtsied in her dress before taking a seat once more. It was then also, that Jisung noticed that Dr. Araña’s hand had only three slender fingers on each. “I’ve always liked that she was a pretty girl. When I was younger, I was always envious of the other little girls since in comparison, I was very ugly.”

                  “I don’t think you’re ugly.” Jisung spoke without thinking, and her nervousness increased in that moment, regretting her lack of a filter in that instant.

                  Jisung took this time, however, to observe Dr. Araña some more: the way she held herself with straightened shoulders, or the way that her bald head was only enhanced by the gold eye painting she had above each eye, or the beautiful gold necklace that fell effortlessly around her elongated neck. It was then, also, she noticed that Dr. Araña had no ears! Her head was perfectly smooth all around and Jisung wondered how she could hear.

                  “Thank you, Miss Nami.” She smiled. “I will say that I need your response today. I’m sure that you will make the right decision. I know you won’t regret it.” She smiled. “Come, let me show you something that we’re going to be working on together- if you do decide-, just to give you an idea what you’re going to see and do here. Perhaps seeing things up close will further convince you to stay with us.”

                  Dr. A and Jisung walked down the hallway and back to the elevator. As the doctor walked ahead of Jisung, it was interesting to see her move on four legs that had only spiked tips at the bottom and not feet. The entire framework of this woman was an interesting sight to see and observe, especially how her lab coat seemed to be tailor made to cover her rather round abdomen. Jisung caught herself staring.

                  Soon thereafter they arrived on a different floor- one Jisung was too distracted to remember, and clutching her messenger bag close to her side, she got a strange feeling in her gut.

                  It became that white, pristine museum space again, except this time it seemed more of a laboratory feel that you would only see in movies or video games but never in real life, especially this close. There were large cylindrical vats around the room, and some were empty while others were filled with radically colored fluids. She had seen these before during a museum visit but never in this quantity and certainly never up this close- she had always been on the other side of the glass.

                  “You recognize them, I hope.” Dr. Araña turned slightly to ask Jisung the question and she nodded in reply. “These ones are ‘X’ as I’m sure you remember.”

                  Jisung could recall one of the first trips to the museum where her tour guide had explained to her:

               “As you can see, there are more people like this, but these ones are extra special. They are submerged for a much longer period of time.” It was Jongdae giving her the tour as she recalled in her daydream.

               “Is that the only difference?” she asked and witnessed him open his eyes and look at the two of them behind the glass- his silver eyes were piercing.

               “They are known as X, which stands for MIX. They have more than one element at their disposal.” Jongdae explained, his dark eyes glistening with wonder as he observed the person inside the room. “That one there is getting a little more testing, since he is one of very, very few who were able to handle this type of experimenting with relative ease- that makes him a little dangerous to us. It’s surprising that he opened his eyes, honestly, he’s been out for a few years now, just absorbing the power that we give to him like it’s nothing.”

               “Why?”

               “Why is he dangerous?” he asked and she followed up with a nod, “Power, and speaking of, the next room’s informational display has the information on who all of this power derived from!”

               He was almost excited to show her the next room, and his gait gained a spring as he stopped in front of the display.

               “Ta-dah!” he smiled while waving his hands at it, “I made this display myself and it’s about the Engels! Originally, they were referred to as Golden Children, and there were twelve members, but as of recent, only four remain a part of this museum. Let me see if I can name them off by memory: Terra of the earth, Lympha of the water, Ignis of fire, Glacies of ice, Lucis of light, Noctis of darkness, Procella of thunder and lightning, Sonus of the sounds, Aura of air and Caelum of flight, uh-“ he looked at the display for a second to figure which ones he was missing, “-ah, that’s right, Anima of healing and Magnus for mind. Dr. Par had discovered that the Golden Children possessed powerful,”  
-he emphasized his words with a spark of enthusiasm that was refreshing to her-“new DNA that could be used to manipulate the genetics of humans. So, she would take a blood sample from the Gol-er-Engel and use that to extract the DNA and make the serum. Well, a lot of the Engel began to find it unethical to give powers to people who either didn’t deserve it, or shouldn’t have it in the first place.”

                  As Jisung listened, she could see a spark in his eye and a powerful boom in his voice.

                  “So, one by one Engel, as they are referred to today, left the facility, and now only four remain. The twin brothers of fire and ice, Ignis and Glacies- they’re not identical though. They’re nice once you get to know them, but if you ask me I think they were switched at birth. Ignis is such a stiff but he’s the more level-headed of the two, while Glacies is a warm and kind soul- but don’t let that fool you he’s amazing at making deals and a lot of people regard him as untrustworthy, though they’re both kind of finding a middle ground on some points. Then there are the brothers as I mentioned before: Lucis and Noctis. The little yin-yang kids are an interesting pair: they have the same personality in opposite extremes. Anyway, we don’t use much of Noctis’ DNA. The more they used it in experiments,” he paused so he could begin to walk backwards towards another door, “the more they found out that the people started to go insane from the dark matter eating them alive.”

                  In front of her in this new room were videos of people who had no control over themselves and had to be held down and restrained, but were fighting and fussing and causing a riot in the room- some clawing at their own skin as they screamed. Some were placed in cages, and some had black bags over their heads.

                  Jisung snapped out of her memory at that sight and found herself staring at one of the persons inside of the vat.

                  “This is a new experiment that our dear Noctis himself is trying out. He’s trying to create someone very special for what purpose, I don’t know, but he said it’s off-limits to touching for now.”

                  “I… I think I would like to work with you.” Jisung managed to stammer out as she stared at the boy unconsciously floating in the fluid.

                  “Excellent, I’ll send you the files and you can read them at your home and return them via CS message when you’re done. They do take some time to read, so it’s best to be comfortable, at least.” She smiled brightly, her gold eyeshadow glittering on the six eyes as they blinked separately.

                  “Thank you.” Jisung nodded and was shown the way out not too long after.

                  By the time Jisung left the museum the rain had stopped, though the clouds still loomed darkly in the air. A thousand questions ran through her head as she made her way back home, where the HM had prepared dinner for her arrival.

                  While she was studying genetics in college, The Eyes Museum of Creation had become a second home due to the nature of her project regarding the Nameless. While she was a human herself, and many of her friends Nameless, it seemed almost fitting that she accept the scholarship. With the scholarship came great promise, but it would leave her roommate alone to pay for the house by herself, something she knew would give her great bounds of stress and worry. Whenever Jisung got free time during her schedules, she would look over the contract that seemed almost too good to be true. She would hardly see Sooji these days to ask for her opinion on the matter- no matter how many times she would ask, it seemed, that Sooji was always more than glad to offer her word- but she was all alone in the decision this time.

                  The door pinged and she heard footsteps enter the house. Peeking from her bedroom door, she found the worn out, disheveled frame of her roommate standing there, struggling to get her shoes off.

                  “Are you okay?” Jisung timidly asked and Sooji looked up, her expression was as lifeless as Jisung thought she looked. “I’m going to take that as a no.”

                  “I’m so-” her roommate’s voice trailed off for a minute.

                  “Dead?” Jisung filled in for her.

                  “Huh?” Sooji refocused. “Oh, yeah, that’s the word.”

                  “Do you mind if I have a word with you? I want to talk to you about this scholarship.” Jisung spoke and her roommate nodded her head.

                  “Let me shower really quickly and get changed, I want to hop right into bed once we’re done talking if you don’t mind.”

                  “Take your time.” Jisung retreated back to her room to gather the files on the clear screen she had written out on the pros and cons of the scholarship (even though it ended up being more of a ‘pros and con’ type of paper).

                  When Sooji had finished that which she had said she would, she returned to the kitchen island, opposite Jisung and gave a slight smile, signaling she was ready.

                  Jisung inhaled, “It’s about the scholarsh-”

                  “-take it.” Sooji interrupted.

                  “What?”

                  “You’ve been at this for two years now, and they see your potential. So, you have to leave the apartment and I’ll have to find another roommate to pick up your side of the rent but it’s not like I don’t know _anybody_. This is a good opportunity for you.”

                  “But that’s completely rude to you to just leave you like this.”

                  “When do you have to leave, anyway?” Sooji turned around to grab a cup and had it make her warm tea, for hot tea was something she disliked. _“Cup, please put honey in the tea, thank you.”_ Jisung heard Sooji whisper.

                  “According to the contract, I will be moved out after my last final, which is tomorrow.”

                  “That quick already, huh?”

                  “Dr. A needs the contract by tonight.”

                  “Geez,” Sooji chuckled, “this woman doesn’t play around.”

                  “She seems very serious. But are you sure?”

                  “Look, if I was presented with an equivalent opportunity I would have taken it right then and there and figured out the logistics later. Take the scholarship, it will be so good for you. I am sure you will not regret it at all. Imagine all the opportunities this could lead to! Working in the museum alongside the world’s leading geneticist, not to mention a full ride to Krasis, which is arguably the most expensive school in Doull1.”

                  “Alright, alright.” Jisung paused for a moment while looking down at the clear screen. “I’ll sign it.”

                  “Will you be here tomorrow?”

                  “No, I have a busy schedule unfortunately: first my final in the morning, at lunch I have to do some architecture sketch finalizations with Key, at dinner time, Taek has his show that he invited me to and after that it’s off to Doull5 to meet up with Heget and Huh at the Solp Gallery.”

                  “Busy day ahead, but stop skipping meals.” Jisung half-heartedly commented as she signed the contract, and as soon as she did, it dinged and disappeared from the clear screen.

                  “I can’t help myself,” he roommate smiled, “a busy life leaves no time for eating.”

                  “At least bring something with you in your bag, then.”

                  “Park agreed to bring me coffee at least during lunch when he comes to visit as always.”

                  “Fine, but just take care of yourself.” Jisung looked up at her roommate. “I won’t be here to slip snacks into your bag anymore.”

                  Sooji smiled as she left the kitchen and retreated to her room.

                  Jisung’s roommate was something else, indeed. While Jisung had come from a separate continent to live in the city of Houhn, Sooji was a native here. Their lifestyle and personalities were complete opposites, yet they were good friends nonetheless. While Jisung would spend her time studying, Sooji found herself always doing projects and coming up with the latest and greatest ‘must-have’ items on the architecture markets. Her roommate was a bit full of herself, she would admit, but she was also ceaselessly kind to everyone around her- except herself. Always placing herself last meant that she would wear herself out, and go into a sort of hibernation consisting of snacking and staying in the house for a few days on end, snuggled under blankets and listening to soft music. When it was crunch time for projects, she wouldn’t be seen for days and often Jisung would have to get reports from friends who brought her nourishment to find out how she was doing.

 

                  While Jisung was away at her mid-morning final, Sooji had already finished her own final and was on her way to the sketching studio. Even though her school professor seemed to be the same age as her, his knowledge was far beyond the reaches of this realm. Key, as the students called him, was among the top architects of their time, and had been for a few centuries thus far. It was an honor, Sooji thought, to have such a man be able to teach her.

                  Entering the studio, she saw him patiently waiting behind his desk, drawing something of his own. 

                  “Sooji, nice of you to _finally_ join.” His voice was annoyed and disturbed, and his sharp, glaring eyes were no help.

                  “I just came from my final.” She placed her bag on the tabletop carelessly, and brought up a large clear screen to show her work. “I have my work ready, if you care to look at it.”

                  His simple, haughty, “I don’t.” shocked her.

                  “But you called me in to review my work for my final grade.”

                  “I decided I don’t really care because it won’t change my mind.”

                  It wasn’t in her nature to argue with him, so she sat quiet for a moment. However, the more she sat quietly, she found it a struggle to stay awake. Having done so much work with little to no time to rest, she began to fall asleep at her desk.

                  “Isn’t there something else you could be doing than sleeping!” Key’s shrill voice echoed in the room and she shot awake. Immediately, she asked her personal assistant for the time.

                  “It is six in the afternoon, ma’am.” It replied.

                  “What?! How did I manage to fall asleep for the entire day?” she screeched, “Am I late?”

                  “If you run, we will make it.” The robotic voice spoke and grabbing it in one fist and her bag in the other, she bolted out the door and down the hallway.

                  Using all of her might, she ran for the theater house and she entered just as the doors were going to lock. With a breath of relief, she took out her clear screen ticket and headed towards the doorkeeper.

                  “You barely made it in time.” The robot scoffed at her and the door opened for her to enter. “Please enjoy the show!”

                  “Thank you.” She walked in and waited for her seat.

                  In any other theater, patrons would have to find their own seat, however in this theater things are a bit different: patrons who enter are scanned into the computer system, and their seat comes to find them at the door, and once seated, brings them to their proper place. This also ensures that in the case of an emergency, the seats can bring the patrons out in a quick and organized manner.

                  Sooji was seated directly in the center of the third row, where Taekwoon could see her easily.

                  “Izzy,” Sooji spoke to her personal assistant, “please go get me something like coffee that’s as black as the night and full of sugar.”

                  “Yes, madam.” It replied before making its way to the floor and scurrying underneath the seats and returned by the time the show started.

                  With music playing, the curtains disappeared and the show began. It appeared that Taek was the main point of the show, and she felt happy for him. As she blindly watched and drank what she assumed was coffee ( _at least it was coffee flavored_ ), she began to think about him for a moment.

                  “ _You know, it is a bit strange I haven’t seen him in the past three years and here he is on the stage, performing like he’s studied this his entire life. Didn’t they say he was dead at one point?”_ she asked herself while taking another sip. “ _I wonder if he’ll like to go to dinner after this. You know, he kind of looks different, but I guess three years away wherever he was will do that to a person.”_

 

                  Before she knew it, the curtains reappeared out of thin air, and the show was over. The guests were allowed out of their seats and were allowed to show themselves out of the theater, but she had been previously instructed to stay in her seat and wait. While waiting, she noticed the crowd getting smaller and smaller until everyone had left. It was then that she saw Taek come out from a separate door leading to the stage.

                  “I’m so glad you made it!” he hugged tightly her as they met.

                  “Of course! I wanted to see my dead friend’s show.” She smirked and he laughed.

                  “I’m dead to you?” his voice was low and timid as it always had been- a stark contrast from the loud, booming character he had just performed as. “And why is that?”

                  “Dropping off the face of Houhn for three years and not a single word?”

                  “Hey,” he stopped himself as soon as he spoke, “are you hungry?”

                  “Yes! Should we go grab something to eat?”

                  “I would like that.” He smiled as they began to exit the theater.

 

 


	2. CODE: SHIFT

              It had been a while since the delicately rich smell of battered wokfish filled Sooji’s nose and Taekwoon could feel the happiness emitting from her as her head swayed side to side- a typical habit of eating good food.

              “So, what have you been up to for the last three years?” Sooji asked with a twinkle in her eye as she took another bite off of the skewer.

              “It’s been a real blur to me, it feels like everything just meshed into one memory. I’m much more interested in hearing how the token architect of the Ryounin District is doing?”

              “’Token architect’?” Sooji laughed and her face twitched a bit in pain, but she tried to muffle it.

              “You don’t have to hide it from me, you know.” Taekwoon reassured with a low voice, “I know about your heart. Is it doing any better or is it just the same as usual?

              “With all the added stress of classes, it doesn’t seem to be getting better.” Sooji forced a small smile.

              “And there’s still nothing even healers can do?”

              “No. Hongbin said it was normal for people under as much stress as I am.”

              “I don’t know if I trust that Hongbin guy.”

              “Why would he have a reason to hide anything, though? I mean, I’m not asking you to trust him either, he’s my doctor.”

              “That’s true, but-

“-and I don’t think he would keep anything from me regarding my own health.”

              “That’s also true.” He agreed and wiped his mouth with the napkin he was provided. “Are you going home after this, or, wait, no, let me guess, you’re going back to the studio.” He laughed.

              “That’s right, I’m going back to the studio.” She laughed along.

              “Let’s get you over there, then.” He pushed the chair out from underneath him and Sooji followed suit.

              After he paid the bill, Taekwoon and Sooji began their walk back to the Ryounin Architecture and Design Arts building. To start, Sooji playfully, and not-so-secretly, slipped her half of the food bill into his pocket and he bit his lip trying to muffle a laugh.

              “You really don’t change, do you?”

              “Why? Is that a bad thing?” she smiled and held herself- she was getting cold.

              As the end of the year approached, already in their thirteenth month, the weather grew colder and the days grew darker in preparation for Jauning, the fourteenth month, which is also a month of complete darkness and bitter cold. Most people stay indoors during the entire month, opting to work from home instead. 

              “Do you want my jacket?” he asked but she shook her head and he pulled her closer by the shoulder and walked closely with her.

              “Now look who hasn’t changed.” Sooji laughed and looked up at him.

              His sharp eyes looked down at her, and the silver of his irises were cold- it was like he was looking at a stranger and it startled her a bit, dampening her mood. As he turned his face to watch where he was walking once more, her chill feeling wasn’t from the cold, but from the mood she was now in. A lot had happened in the three years they had been apart and it seemed that his warm demeanor was a thing of the past.

              She sighed to herself.  

              “A lot did happen in those three years.” He confessed, but he looked away from her as he was talking, as if he didn’t want to tell her in the first place. “A lot of painful things.”

              “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

              “I saw Jisung a couple of times during the three years, though. It was almost comforting seeing a familiar face.”

              Sooji’s attention snapped to Taekwoon quicker than a magnet’s grasp. What did he just say?

              “E-excuse me?” she stammered, “You saw Jisung?”

              “Yes.” He nodded.

              _“Why would Jisung never tell me about seeing Taekwoon?”_ she thought to herself, _“Why would she **lie** to me when I asked her if she knew anything, or when I asked her to tell me if she saw him?”_

              “What are you thinking?” he let out a short chuckle.

              “Just about how long you’ve been gone.” She quickly lied.

              “You don’t have to lie.” He knew. “I underwent a lot of testing in the museum.” He confessed further. “They said I did really well. I.. I’m an ‘X’ now.”

              “What’s that even mean?”

              “It means I can hold two powers as a Nameless. When I was in the vat, it was peaceful, though. It was weightless and it felt nice, and when I opened my eyes during the first year, I saw Jisung. It was nice seeing a familiar face.”

              “How did you end up there in the first place?” she was cautious with her words.

              “I volunteered.”

              “ _What_? Why?”

              “I really hated my life. I went in there hoping that if I got experimented with more that my life would just end during the process, but it seems like I’ve only got an extended stay, now.”

              “That makes me so sad.” He heard her voice quaver and he couldn’t help but smile at her genuine feelings.

              “You don’t have to worry, though, I’m not going anywhere anymore.” He placed a hand on the top of her head and swayed her hair left and right and it made her smile a bit.

              It was just after that moment that they arrived at the architecture building and he hugged her before she swiped her card to gain entry into the building. She waved from the door and he watched with a smile as she walked up the stairs and finally disappeared behind another door. As he walked away, a familiar voice called behind him from the shadows.

              “Taekwoon,” it swooned and he closed his eyes for a moment as he stopped walking. “I hope you will do your best to remember what side you are on, and what side _she_ is on. Don’t really want to have to send you in for some more testing, will I?”

              “No, sir.” He called without looking behind him.

              “Excellent. You know, for a minute there, you seemed almost genuine- you had me worried.” Taekwoon heard before he continued walking on with a heavy heart.

 

              Meanwhile, inside the building, Sooji began working on her sketches when she heard someone walking outside of the open door. Waiting, the footsteps stopped and she grew curious, but continued working, keeping an eye on the open door ahead of her. The footsteps began again and stopped once more. Frustrated, she cautiously went up to the door and peeked outside, first form the direction the footsteps had come from and then to the other side, but saw nobody both of the ways. Returning to her desk, she looked down at her PA, who displayed the time for her and it was then that she remembered her promise to visit Heget and Huh in Doull 5. With a panicked heart, she quickly gathered her things and had her PA summon a driver for her. Scatterbrained, she ran out of the room and bumped into Park immediately.

              “Park!” she shrieked out in both fear with a slight pinch of anger. “I’m so sorry, I have to go.”

              He, however, was laughing- a steaming beverage in his hand- he tried not to spill it and placed it on the table next to him. He was adorned in a costume, obviously intending on playing a joke on the always-tired Sooji.

              “I don’t think this is funny!” she snarled and when he opened his eyes from laughter, he was shocked!

              “Sooji, you have shifting powers?” he asked while his eyes were wide- a bright smile was forming on his face. “Look at you! This is amazing!” he opened his arms up and gestured to her new form.

              “What are you talking ab-“ Sooji looked down at her hands and she was shocked! What had happened to her hands- they were larger than normal, and had an animal’s claws at the end instead of nails!

              “Hugo, show a mirror image of Sooji, please!” Chanyeol called to the PA Phoenix on his shoulder.

              “As you command, your highness!” it quickly said and as it flapped its metallic wings, it showed Sooji an image of herself in real-time and she was shocked.

              Gripping her chest, Sooji’s breathing became hitched and she only heard him calling out her name as she collapsed on the floor.  When she woke up, she was still in the architecture building, but Hongbin was kneeling over her, a tool in his hand and his PA hovering over as his flashlight.

              “Huh?” she managed to say before trying to lift her right arm, but it was too heavy to do so more than a few centimeters off the ground, and put them back down with a huff- she felt as if she had just run a marathon or two.

              “I’m glad you’re awake,” Hongbin said as a light shown in her eyes. “How do you feel?”

              “Confused.” She murmured.

              “Sooji can you tell me what happened?” he asked calmly.

              “Uh, I remember I was late,” she grew upset, “oh, no I never made it to the Solp Kitchen.”

              “That’s alright, please try to focus on anything else you may recall.”

              She thought hard, “I ran into Park, and… I don’t remember much after that, just that my chest started hurting.”

              “Do you remember changing?” Hongbin asked nonchalantly.

              “Changing?”

              “I don’t want to startle you again, but seem to have changed forms.”

              “Forms? I’ve never changed forms, I haven’t signed any documents recently that I can re-”

              “Not that kind of form,” he interrupted, “you have taken the form of a very ancient creature right now, do you think you could manage to change yourself back into a human?”

              “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

              “If I show you a mirror of yourself, do you think you could remain calm?”

              “I think so.” She agreed and he called out to his PA to show Sooji a mirror of herself as both he and Park helped her into a sitting position.

              What she saw was definitely not human and her mind went blank for a moment. Was that creature in front of her really her? In fact, she wasn’t even fully transformed into the creature, but halfly so and in being malformed, it was an even worse sight to endure. Closing her eyes tightly and slowly opening them up again she saw that, indeed, it was not a dream.

              “What’s happening to me?” she asked.

              Hongbin smiled, “You’ve awakened your dormant powers, it appears.”

              “Dormant powers- do you mean to tell me-” she was interrupted by Park telling her to calm and quiet herself- for everybody’s sake- lest she fully transform into the beast, “-do you mean to tell me,” she repeated in a whisper, “that I am a Nameless?”

              “It appears so.” Hongbin nodded to her, and the PA stopped the mirror.

              She grew worried, and in doing so she could see that her body was transforming again and she began to panic.

              “The less emotions you use,” Hongbin put a hand on her shoulder and she could feel that he was fighting her shapeshifting with his own powers, “the less you will transform right now.”

              Trying to calm herself down, she could feel that the less she was nervous and scared about her transformation, the more she was beginning to return to normal. First her right leg, which was malformed in the shapeshifting, began to come back first by the bones, then muscles and finally her skin, sock and shoe. The transformation took a while to begin again on her torso, her arm and finally the rest of her face. An hour had passed before she was finally back in her human form, and it was at that time that she exhausted herself and fell into a sleep-like state, though awake. Hongbin dressed her in his lab coat and buttoned the front- her transformation had ripped her shirt and she was exposed.

              “Why are you dressed like an idiot?” Sooji tiredly asked Chanyeol as she was being transported.

              He could give no explanation as he looked own at himself and back at Hongbin, who only shrugged and looked elsewhere: he was thinking the same thing Sooji had, only he had enough sense to keep his mouth shut in front of the young prince.

              Hongbin had called for an ambulance vehicle, which assisted in getting her out of the room and into the hospital. She was brought into the patient's room and laid on a newly cleaned bed. Park followed behind with her bag and waited beside her in the hospital room, collapsing in the chair beside her when he was finally able to sit down.

              “Diana,” he spoke lightly to his PA, “please grab me the videos from the architecture building and from wherever she was before then.”

              “Access to those videos are denied.” His PA spoke and he stopped in his tracks.

              “Excuse me?” he was caught off guard.

              “Those videos are claimed and are flagged as confidential.”

              Hongbin stood in thought for a moment. _“If they are confidential this quickly, especially with nobody around… was this planned? Was it set up?”_  

              “Doctor,” a nurse called for him and broke him from his thoughts, “we are in need of your assistance!”

              The hospital room Sooji woke up in was familiar, at least. Looking over, she saw that nobody was in the same room as her and she rest her eyes a bit more before she heard a knock at the door. In came Park holding a steaming cup of coffee with a bright smile on his face.

              “Ah,” he sighed, “she’s still not awake.”

              “Think again, hot head.” She answered with a light chuckle without opening her eyes.

              He laughed, “I’ve got coffee but I’m sure your coffee-senses were tingling even before I opened the door.”

              “That’s right.” She laughed again and opened her eyes slightly- she was beat. “Can I ask you some questions?”

              “Sure!” he smiled as he sat down in the chair he had previously occupied. “I’ll answer if I can.”

              “Am I really a Nameless?” she asked frankly and it caught him off-guard for a moment.

              “I think… technically you might be.”

              “But, how come I passed the tests before? Like, I couldn’t have gotten a non-Nameless pass if I didn’t pass the tests.”

              “That I don’t know.” He paused for a minute and gave her the coffee when he saw her try to subtly take it from his hands. “But, I think Minseok’s dad might know.”

              “Minseok’s dad?” she took a sip of her coffee and tried not to spit it out since it was so hot.

              “Yeah, he’s got this huge library, maybe he’s got some answers on… dormant powers?” he was stumbling in his answer. “I can always ask the other Engel Children and Nameless that I know. Maybe it’s because your power is shapeshifting.”

              “This feels so weird.” She sighed.

              “I’m not exactly sure I can understand what you’re going through, but I will be here if you need me for anything.”

              “I appreciate that.” She said and thought for a moment before speaking up again. “Do you think the museum has anything on this?”

              “Not that I can recall, but I bet we can get some answers from people who study the Nameless everyday of their lives! And Jisung works there too, I’m sure she would be more than happy to help you out! She’s got a lot of Nameless friends too, she would be the best person to go to, I think!”

              “You’re right, Jisung’s always been surrounded by them.” She laughed. “Am I clear to go home, though?”

              “Let’s call the staff and find out!” He stood up enthusiastically and pressed the button by Sooji’s bed and a nurse came through the door.

              “How many I assist you two today?” the robot asked cordially.

              “When can Sooji go home?”

              “Your wife is cleared to go home when she wakes up.” The nurse answered and Chanyeol could feel his ears folding down in slight cowardice.

              “Wife, huh?” Sooji murmured before cheerfully thanking the staff member and after she had left, she turned to Park with flames in her eyes and repeated louder, “ _Wife_ , huh?”

              “In my defense, it was the only way to get in here!” he playfully yelled.

              “I want a divorce.” Sooji said as she slowly got out of bed.

              “No way!”

              “What’d you say?” she playfully questioned.

              “I said, uh, ‘You okay?’”

              “That’s what I _thought_ you said. But, yeah, it feels like I’m just really tired, though.” She chuckled and then paused.

              “You… okay?” he repeated.

              “Husband or not get out of here so I can change and we’ll leave.”

             

              On their way out, they happened to pass by Hongbin, and they thanked him for his help.

              “If anything else is to come up, please send my PA a report about it. I’d like to keep an eye on you to make sure you’re alright during this process.” He smiled politely and they thanked him before exiting the building. Chanyeol hailed his driver and together they went to the museum.

 

              Arriving, they walked in through a different entrance near the rear of the building, and Chanyeol had his PA send a message to Jisung to meet him up in the observatory where the informational signs and tours took place were and she agreed to meet him up there once she heard Sooji was there.

              As they waited, Sooji began to read about shapeshifters, telling Park all of the interesting things she found. He would nod at her reading and then expand on it more than the boards would say.

              “Get a load of this, ‘there have been shapeshifters known to be able to shift into old-aged, extinct beasts and even crystal-formed rulers’! Didn’t Hongbin say something like that about me?”

              “That’s true, he did say something like that. The ‘old-aged, extinct beasts’ are known as CYN beasts, which fed off of the emotion of fear that they instilled in everyone, but a hero rose up against them who held no fear in his heart. That’s a good read- _also_ found in Glacies’ library.”

              “What about the rulers?”

              “I have only heard about that thing in passing from other books. I bet one of the Engels know about it, but I don’t know if any of them would talk about it. Come to think of it there _was_ one book that talked about a Crystalline Dragon formed from the Engel Crystal in a time of crisis, but everyone says that was like, a million years ago and can’t happen again.”

              “You read a lot, huh?”

              “Yeah, I try to. If I want to be a proper Engel one day and a king, I should really know the history of the world, don’t you?”

              “Sooji! Chanyeol!” they heard Jisung call and she smiled at them. “What are you guys doing here on off-days?”

              “I had a question to ask you about shapeshifters.”

              “You could have just sent a message to me.” She retorted with a snort of a laugh.

              “True, but I wanted to come here and read the display and see if we could talk to anybody here.”      

              “Are you doing early research for next semester or something already?” her former roommate questioned, with an unusual twinkle in her hazel eye.

              “Kind of. Do you know anything about dormant powers?” Sooji was up-front with her and didn’t want to waste any of her time.

              “Not really, although, in some of our experiments we see that happen. We inject someone and maybe their power won’t appear for a few hours or days. The most we waited was a month before we tried to experiment on him again, but when he got nervous his power suddenly showed itself.”

              “Oh, so it’s triggered by emotions?”

              “Not always, we found that some people are really resistant to the serum.”

              “Um,” Sooji thought for a moment about another question she could have, but Jisung cut her off.

              “You know, it’s kind of unusual to see you here.” Jisung thought out loud, “In all the days I’ve been coming, you’ve only showed up, what, twice?”

              “Yeah,” Sooji nodded, “I’d, uh, I’d say about twice.”

              “Why are you reading on shapeshifters anyway? Those scumbags are always getting into trouble.” Jisung laughed.

              “Excuse me?” Sooji’s brow wrinkled a bit, and even Chanyeol looked over at Jisung with a questionable face.

              “Shapeshifters are the lowest of even the Nameless.”

              “Aren’t you being a little harsh right now?” Chanyeol cut in.

              “I’m being a bit _generous_ is what I’m being right now.” Jisung retorted.

              “You have so many Nameless friends, why are you putting them down all of the sudden? And you study them, you-you love Kyun-”

              “Did my ruse even fool you?” she laughed. “I’m surprised, you usually are so quick to pick up on people.”

              “I came here to study shapeshifters, not to question the intentions of my friends, but I also had another question and I’m glad you’re here to answer it.” Sooji had a snap to her voice Chanyeol could sense that she was about to get angry, and put a hand on her shoulder.

              “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to say these things? I’ve tried to convince you that the Nameless were bad people in the beginning. I told you to stay away from them and look at you, you’re in the middle of them all. I’ve studied them and studied them and I’ve found out what makes them tick, what makes them weak-”

              “Do you think earning a scholarship makes you better than anyone else?” Sooji could feel Chanyeol’s hand squeeze her shoulder a bit more and she tried to remain collected.

              “You don’t have to be friends with them,” her tone was haughty as she looked through the glass pane at the experiments going on inside the museum, “they don’t contribute anything good. Also, you are right, I do believe this scholarship- this internship- makes me better than anyone else. Nobody else was fit for this job but me. They studied _me_ , they chose _me_ \- not anybody else. Oh, and you said you had a question for me before, what was it, I’m suddenly curious?”

              “Ah, right, about that,” Sooji could feel her pulse elevating, pressure building as she fought herself to keep her face straight on the outside. “I met up with Taekwoon yesterday.”

              “Oh, the worst of them all.” She chuckled as she pressed a bit further into the glass.

              “The funny thing is, he went missing three years ago.”

              “Wonder what got into him?”

              “I’m sure you know.” Sooji’s voice was scary to even Chanyeol, “Because three years ago, he remembered seeing you every Tuesday without fail, right here in the museum.”

              Sooji’s straight-faced bluff worked, and she could sense that Jisung was getting tense. A whispered “What?” even escaped Park’s lips.

              “And you couldn’t find a _minute_ of your time to tell me that you at least _knew_ where he was.”

              “I don’t have to tell you anything.” Jisung’s tone grew harsh as she defended herself.

              “You attended his funeral!” Sooji could feel herself growing angry, and Park called her name and she looked down to see herself half transformed already- but into a different creature than before.

              Jisung turned around to face Sooji and she was startled by her appearance and grew frightened.

              “So, you were one of them all along.” Jisung sneered. “You little bitch! How did you get a non-Nameless pass then? I’ll have you reported and then detained! I’d love to get to experiment on something as _petty_ as you!” Jisung eyes glistened as she ran off the opposite direction which would lead her further into the museum.

              “We have to go.” Sooji’s voice was frail as she worked with all of her strength to return herself to her former state.

              “Sooji, you’re exhausted, get on my back but continue to change yourself into a human again!” he offered and she held onto his neck as he escorted her out of the Museum, but she and Park were stopped at the main gate by the police when they arrived there.

              “Sir, please drop the girl and both of you put your hands into the air.” One officer spoke with a stern voice and the two did as instructed. “We’ve received reports of two fleeing Nameless from the museum and one of them has a faulty pass. If you don’t mind, we’d like to hold you here until you are identified properly.”

              Jisung came out after them and ran down the large set of stairs as they did bloodwork on Sooji in the back of their vehicle to determine her Nameless status. Sooji was nervous but willingly agreed to do so with no fight- she truly believed she had nothing to fear, and thus did not transform from her human state. The officer took her arm and put a device to it that would take her blood and give a reading as soon as she pressed a button.

              “Negative.” The officer said and Jisung took the device into her hands and was startled at the result.

              “Ma’am, please do not grab the device.” The officer warned and Jisung apologized as she handed the machine back.

              “This has to be false, she transformed right in front of my eyes!”

              “Ma’am,” the officer asked Sooji, “did you do as she claims?”

              “Feel free to take more blood if you think your test was incorrect.” Sooji offered her other arm and the officer complied- again it came up with a negative result.

              Jisung asked the device be tested on Chanyeol, who showed his ID pass, and his result came up immediately positive. Jisung was beside herself when the officers were packing up their instruments, and by that time Dr. A had come out of the museum herself to see what the commotion was about.

              “You have been working all day, I think your head may be exhausted.” The doctor spoke and escorted Jisung back into the museum, apologizing to Chanyeol and Sooji, allowing them to leave. The officers gave the doctor and Jisung a warning about falsely calling the police and Jisung scoffed as she was forced to apologize.

 

              “You lied to those officers.” Park huffed when they were inside of his hover vehicle.

              “When did I?” Sooji looked over at him, rubbing the sore spots from where she was prodded with the device.

              “They asked if you did like Jisung said and you said-”

              “What _did_ I say?”

              Park thought for a moment and when he realized her answer his face became astonished. “You totally dodged the question!”

              “That’s right. I never did give them an answer. I feel bad for lying but, what can I do when the test came up negative twice?”

              “I wonder how that worked.”

              “I don’t know either, but I thank God it did or I would have been in some serious trouble.”

              “I’m glad it happened like that.” He thought for a moment.

 

              “Hey, where are we going anyway?” Sooji looked out the window at the city zooming by her.

              “We’re going to see a friend of mine- he’s a real talented shapeshifter, and he might know some useful things.”

              “Okay but after that let’s grab something to eat, I’m so hungry!”

              “You got it.” He laughed.

 

              He brought her to a place she had never been in the far reaches of Doull2. It seemed to be a lively place and the smell of good cooking wafted from its doors. The area itself seemed to be in a good mood, and music was coming from the upstairs of the same place- it was cheerful and lively and certainly had the twangy, sweet characteristics of Doull2. The inside and outside was reminiscent of an older style of design, and she couldn’t help but stare at their attention to detail in the architecture.

              “I knew you would like this place if not for the food, but also for the building itself.” He smiled and he talked to the person in front and Sooji could overhear that he had a reservation, and someone in the back stood up and called for him, waving at the same time to catch his attention. Park smiled and guided Sooji to that table.  The guy at the table stood and bowed politely as was customary, and to Sooji he offered a handshake while introducing himself.

              “I’m Jiho, but everyone calls me Zico.” He spoke. “I heard you wanted to know about shapeshifting.”

              He seemed polite to Sooji, but she still felt cautious around him since he was unfamiliar. It wouldn’t be the first time, though, that Park would introduce her to somebody that ended up not being trustworthy- if it did turn out that way in the end.

              “I’m Sooji, but I’m sure Chanyeol has introduced me to you already.”

              “Yeah, yeah.” He nodded and rose his hand to call over the shop waiter and he ordered enough meat for the three of them. Another worker came with hot coals and put them into a hole in the center of the table and covered it with a metal lid to prepare the station for grilling and eating delicious things.

              “I just wanted to ask a few things about shapeshifters, uh, I’m doing like a research project and the people at the museum were kind of nasty.”

              “Oh, I hate them.” He scoffed, “But you and Park are aligned with Noctis, so we’re all chill here.” He gestured to the three of them with his finger as they sat together. “Let’s cut right to it, though, what are you curious about?”

              “I heard that sometimes people have dormant powers, but I heard recently of a case at the museum where it happened to a shapeshifter. The worker said it had to do with serum resistance, but could it also do with shapeshifting itself?”

              “Oh, interesting.” Zico said and Park stood up from his seat to grab some things at the self-serve bar for the table.

              “Yeah, so I was just… wondering?”

              Zico thought about his words for a minute before he answered, “I have heard of that happening with shapeshifters, actually. A few of my shapeshifter friends and some of the ones I trained had that happen to them because, like, you don’t know that you have that power until you successfully trigger a transformation. For someone like me who was born with it, I was transforming since I was a baby, so it’s second-nature for me, but for someone who is new to it, it might just happen out of nowhere.”

              “Oh, that makes a lot of sense.” Chanyeol took the words right out of her thoughts as he sat down, passing Sooji a bowl of garlic.

              “You know me too well.” She smiled at him as she admired the thin slices sitting before her in the bowl.  “But Park is right, it makes sense.”

              “Yeah, I’ve seen a few shapeshifting friends struggling with their first few shifts.”

              “Is there one specific thing that like triggers a transformation?”

              “It’s different for everybody. Some people can be a finger snap, some people can be a thought- it really just depends on that person.”

              “I see, I see.” She nodded and their order was delivered to them.

              Zico took the plates and distributed the meat on the hot metal plate and the sound of the cooking was like music to their ears. The conversation continued effortlessly between the three of them, and gradually grew more off-topic. Sooji felt like she had known him for a while and she was glad she was able to grow comfortable with him.

              “You know, you don’t have to lie about writing a report.” Zico suddenly spoke up as he cut the meat into smaller sections with a scissor. “First of all, you’re in a Nameless restaurant. Nobody cares if you have powers here, just take a look around you.”

              While Sooji ate, she took a look at the people around her both eating and serving those who were eating. The boy bringing the coals to the table did so with his bare hand, and heated them up as he did so until they were properly hot.  There was a server girl who refilled the water glasses with her powers instead of a pitcher. The hostess at the front desk was also growing plants behind her with speed, and the pots would be switched out and taken to the back where the cook was- the freshest kind of produce you could have. It was a perfect working clock. There were some Ghommon intermingled with Nameless friends who had all come to eat. Alongside the laughter, there were people doing tricks with their time power, allowing their meat to cook faster or slower depending on how the conversation was going. Sooji even saw one boy going around tapping his friends’ beer glasses and making them ice cold once more. It was a phenomenal sight to see!

              “That’s a nice gesture but, I don’t have shapeshifting powers.” She took another bite of meat .

              After filling their stomachs to their heart’s content, they paid (albeit more like _fought_ over the end bill, since Zico wanted to pay for it in full since they were the guests in his area but Sooji insisted otherwise, saying that it was her fault for the meeting in the first place), and decided that a walk was not too farfetched of an idea.

              “So, when did you discover that you had the power to shapeshift?”

              “E-excuse me?” Sooji tried to lie again. “A-are you still convinced I have powers?”

              “I actually use fire, not shapeshifting.” Park interrupted.

              “You don’t have to hide it from me.” Zico laughed, “I’m the head of the shapeshifters under Noctis, I would be glad to help you if you need it. I thought that’s why Park called me out anyway.”

              Sooji was quiet for a minute and Zico laughed again, “I swear you can trust me, but that’s alright if you’re shy about it; I’ve got the tattoo to prove it.”

              “Sooji can turn into old CYN beasts, though!” Park revealed.

              “Wha-t?” he was astounded.

              “Chanyeol!” Sooji shrieked.

              “It’s true!”

              “Is it?” Zico was curious.

              “I, uh…”

              “And her blood reads negative on a police scanner still!”

              “Will you stop that!”

              “What else can you do?” Zico was overwhelmed at the information he was getting all at once.

              “I don’t know I just discovered this yesterday!” Sooji began to cling to Park and he began to radiate heat, feeling that she was cold.

              “Oh, you can do that… heat radiating thing?” Zico looked at his friend and scooted around to the other side of him and clung to him just as Sooji was doing.

              “Can’t Yukwon radiate, too?” Park questioned.  


              “He can but… he won’t let me get close when he does. He says he does it only for the ladies.” He scoffed.

              Park laughed and in doing so he radiated more heat.

              “But does your blood really read nothing on a Nameless scanner? Was the scanner broken?”

              “They scanned Chanyeol right after and it came out positive so, it wasn’t broken. They tested both arms, too.”

              “That’s crazy, I wonder what causes that.”

              “I don’t know but it was really convenient at the time.”

              “Hey, wait, now that Jisung moved out of your house who’s going to live with you?” Chanyeol realized.

              “I don’t know yet, but I’ll be okay for now.” Sooji clung a little tighter to Chanyeol’s sleeve. “It’s not like I don’t know anybody, either! There are lots of friends I can ask to move in.”

              “I’ll move in.”

              “You most certainly will not.”

              “Why not?”

              “One sneeze from you and up goes my apartment in flames.”

              “She does have a point.” Zico interrupted.

              “Hey! Whose side are you on?”

              “The one with the apartment not burned down.”

              “Get off of me, both of you! I hope you two freeze to death!” he pulled his sleeves away from them and walked faster.

              “That’s an odd thing to say coming from _you_ ,” a familiar voice cooed, “it gives _me_ chills just hearing it.”

              Turning around, they saw Minseok walking behind them in shorts and a t-shirt licking an iced pop.

              “Hey friends.” He waved at them with the fingers his free hand.

              “Stalking us, Minseok? Don’t you have something better to do?” Chanyeol mocked.

              “Stalking the son of Ignis is what I dream about every night, don’t you know?” the sarcasm in Minseok’s voice was thick enough to cut, and Sooji made a slight slicing motion with her hand and Zico held in his laugh.

              “Hey Minseok, I just remembered something?” Sooji pondered.

              “Yes?” he replied and suddenly his demeanor was cheerful and almost cute.

              “Can I check out your dad’s library one of these days?” she asked, “I have something I want to research and I think there might be some books in there that will be useful.”

              “Sure, we can make a date of it.” He slyly smiled.

“ _Fine_ ,” she scoffed at the word ‘date’, “but I’m not paying for dinner.”

              “It’s a _true_ date then.” He snickered and licked his iced pop again, complaining after that Chanyeol was overheating himself on purpose to make it melt. “But what books are you looking for? If you tell me I can put them aside for you for when you come over.”

              “I actually don’t know yet what books it would be in.” she confessed and he shrugged it off, saying it didn’t really matter anyway. “I can spend more time with you looking for them. And any time I get to take you away from Chanyeol is a delight.” He smiled fantastically before beginning to walk past the trio, and turning around he said, “Just let me know when and I’ll pick you up.”

              “Thanks!” she smiled.

 

              It was a moment of silence as the three watched him walk away before Zico spoke up, “I think you guys should get going. He brought a bad atmosphere with him and it’s not good to stick around here when it gets late at night, anyway.”

              “Do people fight a lot around here or something?” Sooji was curious.

              “There are a few Night Crawler bars in this area, and if you’re not one of them they might prey on you.”

              “Are _you_ one of them?” she asked.

              “No, I’m just naturally good looking.” He snickered before turning to walk away. “I hope you get all of your answers! When you figure out what you need, send a message my way and I’ll help you any way I can.”

              “Thanks! Get home safely!” she called after him and he laughed into the air before disappearing before her eyes.

              “Let’s get _you_ home safely.” Chanyeol spun her around.

 

 

              “Ah, you’re so cute when you sleep.” Park whispered to himself as he looked over to see Sooji passed out in the hovercar he was driving. Her figure was illuminated from time to time when they passed nearby buildings and he couldn’t help but smile to himself. It had been years since he first met Sooji, and he could recall a lot of instances after that he had the perfect opportunity to tell her how he felt about her. Instead, however, he repressed his feelings, especially when he learned about her heart condition, and decided that if she liked him, she would tell him and then, and only then, he would confess to her as well.

              As if she knew, she woke up just as they arrived in her neighborhood. Allowing the hovercar to take over for him, he unbuckled his seatbelt and turned towards her.

              “Can I get a hug at least before you go inside?” he opened up his arms and she hugged him after unbuckling herself. “Do you want me to walk you up to the door? Should I do it anyway? What about inside, there won’t be anybody home are you going to be okay sleeping by yourself tonight after all this happened- you know what maybe I should st-”

              “Park, I’m gonna be okay.” She pushed the button to open the door and he waved at her as she walked to the stairs leading up to her apartment.

              He waited until she turned on the lights to her apartment and waived from the window. Returning her wave, he activated the button to send him home, and he was on his way shortly after.

              Sooji couldn’t help but fall immediately asleep in her bed.

 

              “Madam?” Sooji could hear her HM calling to her. “Madam are you awake now? Oh, thank God.”

              “What’s up?” she sat forward in her bed, slumped over from her morning grogginess.

              “You’ve practically _hibernated_ for three straight days.”

              “What?” she scratched the back of her head.

              “I’ve called Hongbin over multiple times but he said you’re just exhausted. I was seriously concerned, but he still refused! What kind of doctor is he?”

              “A busy one?” she laughed.

              “I don’t see how this is funny! I would have been out of my favorite annoying brat. My life would have been so empty.”

              “You were worried about losing Park?”

              “Very funny, but I’m not laughing.”

              “But three days?” she scoffed at the very thought. “Did I miss anything?”

              “During that time you’ve missed about a _hundred_ calls from Park, one from a Minseok, and your school schedule arrived. I’ve been making up your calendar for this month and next month, you’ve become popular with almost twelve invites. I’ve been making up invites of your own as well.”

              “Oh boy…” her voice trailed off before she looked up to see the calendar on the clear screen ahead of her lit up with multiple dates.

              “Alright, then, let’s see.” She pushed back her hair as the screen drew closer to her, and the HM handed her a pen from his extended robot arm. “Get rid of this one, I’m not going to this one, I don’t even go to that class why are they inviting me?” Sooji was muttering as she was crossing off and deleting invites.

              “I’ll go to this one, this one and host that one. What’s this one?”

              “Ah, yes, Park invited you to one of his.”

              “For what purpose, can you get Park on the line for me?”

              “Sure thing.”

 

              “Hello?” Chanyeol’s frantic voice called. “Sooji are you awake?”

              “Yeah, I finally woke up from my death sleep. I’m a zombie now, so please stay away.”

              “Very funny! I was so worried these past three days!”

              “I heard. I called cause I had a question about the invite you sent me?”

              “Oh, right!” Park’s voice grew enthusiastic, “Uh, I was invited to this one party and I didn’t wanna show up alone so I thought I’d ask you to go with me?”

              “Who’s it by?”

              “Uh, some guy named Jae?”

              “Oh, I think I know him.” Sooji recalled her former classes, “He’s pretty chill if it’s the same one. I’m sure you guys can be fine.”

              “But I told you I don’t want to show up alone!”

              “That’s a poor excuse but I’ll go.”

              “That’s tonight, you know.”

              “Is it?” she had a whine to her voice, “Man, you miss a lot when you hibernate.”

              “Did you have other plans?”

              “I was going to go to the library today, but I’ll go tomorrow then, since the journey would take a long time.”

              “It only takes an hour to get there if you fly, I’m sure you can make it there and back in time.” Her HM interrupted.

              “Does it really? Can you book a flight for me, HM?”

              “You’re going today?” Park complained.

              “You’re only bitter because I’m going to see Minseok. I’m gonna check out the books and take some scans there and it’ll be no big deal, stop complaining.”

              “Be careful around him.”

              “HM.” Sooji interrupted, “Call Minseok, please!”

              “As you wish.”

              “Park, I’ll have to call you back later, I really want to get out and back as soon as I can!” Sooji said as she scurried to get her things ready to shower.

              “Hello?” his sly voice came over the house phone speaker.

              “Minseok, it’s Sooji-”

              “and Park!”

              “Hang up, Park.” Sooji spoke sternly.

              “Nah, it’s fine. I can rub in all the details about our date in his face.” Minseok’s coy smile could be heard over the speaker, and Sooji rolled her eyes.

              “Back off!”

              “Or what?”

              There was silence from Park’s end of the phone line and Sooji gestured to the ceiling and her HM cut the connection on Chanyeol’s line.

              “Anyway,” she continued, “I’m coming over to the library today, would you mind?”

              “I would love it, I’ll pick you up in half an hour at your house if your HM would be so kind as to send me the coordinates.”

              Sooji nodded and the HM did as he requested.

              “Oh excellent, I’ll leave right now.”

              “Wait, half an hour?”

              “Just because I’m ice do you think I’m slow? I’ve got the fastest vehicle on Okewa.” he bragged.

              “Gosh, fine! But HM cut the connection, I’m gonna go shower quickly.”

              “Ooh, steamy.” Minseok spoke and Sooji made a gagging face as the HM cut the connection.

 

              “Sooji, I have readied your makeup at your work station.” Her HM spoke as she finished her quick shower.

              “HM do you know how to do hair?”

              “What do I look like?”   

              “An HM who can do anything?”

              The HM let out a sigh, “I have just downloaded the latest styling tips and techniques.”

              “Just dry and style it casually, please!”

              “As you wish.”

              “When I get back, I hope you’ll have learned some more because I would like to look like I’m not falling apart when I go to that party.”

              “As you wish.” The HM’s voice scoffed while extended robotic arms tied all of her hair neatly.

             


	3. BONUS CODE: HONGBIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an extra chapter, not important to the main plot of the overall story, but it adds a nice depth to Hongbin's Character. A few of these will be added along the way, or possibly after the fact to give a bit more depth.
> 
> * PLEASE NOTE: This is also un-edited, it may change slightly in the future.

 

              His shift had ended and he made his way to the recovery room. While both Nameless Healers and traditional doctors practiced in the same building, they were granted different allowances. By law only Healers could perform on Nameless and doctors could only perform on Ghommon unless they signed a waver which would allow Healers to perform on them as well. For Healers, they were granted a recovery room where they were allowed to catch up on rest, since they grew tired at a slower pace than traditional doctors, but also recovered from their tiredness a lot more slowly than the Ghommon did.

              Hongbin was the top healer in his field, and had mastered many, if not all, of the types of healing that was known. Behind him was a team of expert Healers who had, like traditional doctors, areas of specialty. Some healed bones, others the muscles, and few studied intricate workings of the brain. While there were many specialties, there were only a handful of Healers to go around, and were assigned to more than one hospital in order to satisfy the large amount of Nameless who required care.

              Taking off his shoes, he rubbed his feet to relax himself after having completed another twenty-seven-hour shift.

              “Doctor!” a nurse called to him, “There is an emergency at the Ryounin School of Architecture and you’re needed immediately.”

              “What seems to be the report?” he ran out of the room with his shoes in his one hand and his medical kit in his other hand.

              “It was the prince, the Son of Ignis. He is on the line and will only speak the details to you.”

              “Diana,” he called to his PA, “connect the line to the Son of Ignis.”

              Transforming into a headset, she attached to his ears and he ran into the emergency medical vehicle, which took him towards the school’s direction, in the meanwhile putting on his shoes.

              “Park, it’s Hongbin.” He called into his headset, “What seems to be the issue?”

              “Sooji’s transformed into some kind of creature, she’s also passed out and it’s too heavy for me to lift her like this, I don’t want her to die, her heart was giving her problems.”

              “Please, calm down, Chanyeol.” He assured, “I’m on my way and I’ll be there very shortly. Can you do me a favor, Park?”

              “Sure, sure!” he quickly obliged and Hongbin told Park how to find her pulse, and to make sure that her head was elevated at a certain degree and to hold her hand and talk to her calmly- unnecessary things to keep him busy and his mind calm.

              When Hongbin arrived, Park met him in the front of the building and escorted him up to the room where she was and he was taken back by her form.

              “That’s Sooji?” his eyes grew wide. “This is a CYN beast.”

              “Don’t look at me, I didn’t do this.” He said and Hongbin took a look at his rather outlandish attire before returning his concentration on the girl.

              Taking out his tools, he had his PA read her vital signs and take a blood sample from her and as he checked on her, she began to wake up.

              “I’m glad you’re awake,” Hongbin sighed with relief as he checked her eyes. “How do you feel?”

              “Confused.” She murmured.

              “Sooji can you tell me what happened?” he asked calmly as his PA wrote down the information he was gathering.

              “Uh, I remember I was late,” she grew upset, “oh, no I never made it to the Solp Kitchen.”

              “That’s alright, please try to focus on anything else you may recall.” 

              She thought hard, “I ran into Park, and… I don’t remember much after that, just that my chest started hurting.”

              “ _Her heart.”_ He thought to himself.

              “Do you remember changing?” Hongbin asked nonchalantly, trying to remain as calm as he could. Quite frankly, he was scared to death.

              “Changing?”

              “I don’t want to startle you again, but seem to have changed forms.”

              “Forms? I’ve never changed forms, I haven’t signed any documents recently that I can re-”

              “Not that kind of form,” he interrupted, trying not to laugh at her humor, “you have taken the form of a very ancient creature right now, do you think you could manage to change yourself back into a human?”

              “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

              “If I show you a mirror of yourself, do you think you could remain calm?”

              Hongbin prayed she would remain calm, lest everyone within a thousand clicks of the building die where they stood.

              “I think so.” She agreed.

              “Diana, please show Sooji what she looks like.” He spoke as both he and Park helped her into a sitting position- the CYN half of her was heavier than he imagined and he struggled a bit.

              While she observed herself, he took some time to look at what the CYN beast looked like in appearance compared to what he had read and seen in old books. The tough, black skin that was veined with glowing, hot lines. It was as if the beast of rage itself clawed its way into her skin and left the volcanic lava within the deep gashes. Closing her eyes tightly and slowly opening them up again she saw that, indeed, it was not a dream.

              “What’s happening to me?” she asked and he could tell that she was scared.

              Hongbin smiled, “You’ve awakened your dormant powers, it appears.”

              He smiled to comfort her, while on the inside he had never been more nervous in his entire life. Hongbin figured if he remained calm, she would as well.

              “Dormant powers- do you mean to tell me-”

              “Sooji, please calm down.” Park reassured and she caught herself, shaking herself from her fears.

              “-do you mean to tell me,” she repeated in a whisper, “that I am a Nameless?”

              “It appears so.” Hongbin nodded to her, and the PA stopped the mirror, which doubled as a video camera so he could study her appearance later. Without the mirror, it would continue recording for as long as he was on the job, as it did for every job.

              She began to transform again and Hongbin grew worried.

              “The less emotions you use,” Hongbin put a hand on her shoulder and used his healing powers to stop the cells from growing, “the less you will transform right now.”

              It was at the age of twenty that he had discovered that if he used too much healing power, it would become poisonous and in doing so could hinder the healing process of certain individuals, or certain cancerous entities within a body. His healing poisons were working against her own body, canceling out her transforming abilities, and soon began to help her reverse the entire shapeshifting form. First her right leg, which was malformed in the shapeshifting, began to come back first by recreating her bones, then from memory, her muscles and finally her skin. Her sock and shoe were replaced by Park. The transformation took a while to begin again on her torso, her arm and finally the rest of her face. An hour had passed before she was finally back in her human form, and it was at that time that she exhausted herself and fell into a sleep-like state, though awake. Hongbin had never felt more exhausted in his life, having used an enormous amount of power to help her recreate her body. If she had done it by herself, bone and muscle could have been malformed or misplaced, causing further damage to herself. He would have to remind her to study up on how her muscles and bones are formed in case she would have to do it again by herself. Hongbin gave her his lab coat to cover herself, since she was exposed on the one side of her body.

              “Why are you dressed like an idiot?” Sooji tiredly asked Chanyeol as she was being transported by the ambulance workers that had waited for him outside of the building.

              He could give no explanation as he looked down at himself and back at Hongbin, who only shrugged and looked elsewhere: he was thinking the same thing Sooji had, only he had enough sense to keep his mouth shut in front of the young prince. She was brought into the patient’s room and laid on a newly cleaned bed. Park followed behind with her bag and waited beside her in the hospital room, collapsing in the chair beside her when he was finally able to sit down.

              “Diana,” he spoke lightly to his PA as he rubbed the sweat from his brow, “please grab me the videos from the architecture building and from wherever she was before then.”

              “Access to those videos are denied.” His PA spoke and he stopped in his tracks.

              “Excuse me?” he was caught off guard.

              “Those videos are claimed and are flagged as confidential.”

              Hongbin stood in thought for a moment. _“If they are confidential this quickly, especially with nobody around… was this planned? Was it set up?”_  

              “Doctor,” a nurse called for him and broke him from his thoughts, “we are in need of your assistance!”

              As exhausted as he was, he raced behind the nurse who brought him to an emergency room and after he entered, began to assess his situation, all the while with Sooji in the back of his mind.

 

              When it was done, he was finally allowed to go home. After changing out of his doctor’s scrubs and into his own clothes again, he called for his driver.

              “I’m going to Doull5 today.”

              “Yes, sire. Where to in Doull5?”

              “A place called the Solp Kitchen.”

              “Ah, we have been there before.” The robotic driver spoke in a pleasant tone.

              “Yes, that’s right.”

              “Sire, it appears you are tired, would you like a fresh cup of coffee?”

              “That won’t be necessary. I am sure that Heget will want to offer me one. Let’s stop by a flower stand before we get there, I would like to bring her something.”

              “Yes, sire.”

 

              Arriving in Doull5, his vehicle left him away from his destination, not wishing to attract attention due to his rather pricy ride. Walking a block from where he landed, gift in hand, he entered the door of the Solp Kitchen during its busiest time. Workers were running this way and that, hoping to feed all of the hungry, demanding customers. Heget arrived from the back kitchen to greet him at the door and began her usual spiel before putting on her glasses and leaping with joy.

              “Oh, me! If it isn’t my darling son Hongbin!” the elderly froug leapt and clapped with delight.

              “Hello, Heget.” He smiled.

              “And look! My darling son has brought me a bouquet of steamed litzar!” she took his gift from his hands and then took his hand in her own. “I’m a little busy right now, so if you don’t mind waiting for me-”

              “Why don’t I help you out here?” he smiled, all traces of his weariness gone.

              “Oh, would you?” her raspy voice filled his heart with joy and he grabbed an apron from her and began taking orders, waiting tables, and cleaning up after satisfied guests.

              When the rush was over, the restaurant closed down for the night, and finished serving its final customers.

              “Oh dear,” she held her hand over her chest and sighed, “you must be hungry yourself after working such long shifts and then coming to help me, too.”

              Turning to the kitchen, she yelled, “Huh! Get our son something good to eat!”

              “Eh? What was that?”

              “I know you heard me! Our son Hongbin is visiting, and he helped us today, he deserves a good meal!”

              “Did you say Hongbin?” Huh leapt out from the kitchen and into the dining area. “So you did! My, my how long as it been since I’ve seen you?”

              “Far too long.” He smiled genuinely.

              “Let me whip you up something good. What was your favorite,” he tapped his chin, “it was fresh scoot, wasn’t it?”

              Hongbin nodded, knowing very well that the last thing he wanted to eat was fresh scoot. He couldn’t get over how slimy it always was.

              “No, is your brain not working?” Heget corrected him, “It’s cresh and fries.”

              Huh murmured to himself as he leapt back into the kitchen. Hongbin breathed a sigh of relief as his favorite _was_ cresh and a side of fries. By all means it wasn’t appetizing at all, but it was the most appetizing thing on their menu.

              “So, I know you didn’t come all this way just to see old me. Tell me what the real reason is.” Heget sat down with Hongbin at a table and kicked her legs back and forward in the empty space between her seat and the floorboards.

              “Actually, I came in place of Sooji today.”

              “Yes, the poor dear is working too hard and she forgot to visit today.”

              “She didn’t forget at all. She had a small accident and came to visit me at the hospital.”

              “Sooji’s in the hospital?” Huh called from the kitchen.

              “What happened to my baby?” Heget held her face and Hongbin took her hands, reassuring her that she just overworked herself.

 

              Heget and Huh, a froug couple who never had any children of their own, adopted anybody who came into their doors, calling them their children. Heget, a woman of over ninety years old, could remember everything about her children, while her husband, Huh, would remember nearly everything. The two had run their kitchen for almost seventy years, starting from the time when they found out they were unable to have children. It was Hongbin who was their first customer all those years ago, and it was they that found Sooji when she had run away from home when she was very young. Sooji had met Hongbin for the first time as he helped out during a busy time in the kitchen. They did not become friends, however, because at that time Hongbin was very cold and he regrets not being nicer to her in the beginning. They met again later during a hospital visit, and got along pleasantly.

              When he had finished his meal, he thanked them for his time and they gave him a small gift to give to Sooji the next time he met her. Thanking them one last time, he began to walk down the street, making a call to his vehicle.

 

              Arriving at his home safely, he showered and lay in his bed. As exhausted as he was, he was unable to fall sleep. Getting up, he went to his kitchen, and was startled: laying half asleep on his kitchen table was a familiar figure.

              “That’s not nice to sleep on someone’s table.”

              “It’s actually a step down from your floor, anyway.” He called back while turning his head to look at Hongbin, and it made him laugh. “I wasn’t sleeping, either, just relaxing. There _is_ a difference.”

              “The real question is what are _you_ doing here?”


	4. CODE:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 of the CODE Series has Sooji visiting the famous library in Hyouga and stepping out of her comfort zone a little by attending a party of PARK's classmate, Jaehyung.

              Minseok had given Sooji a long, fur coat to keep herself warm with due to the extreme nature of their capitol city. High upon the mountaintop, lay Hyouga a relatively quiet city due to the sound-muffling effects of the constant snowfall. Heated sidewalks prevent ice and snow from building up and causing a hazard to the populous and made it comfortable to walk since the steam would rise into the air, warming those who walked. The capitol was quite unlike its twin Kazan: the royal castle was built into a grand library where books from the entire world during the span of its lifetime were stored. Every age, every era, and every subject had its place on the multiple floors.

              “Downstairs we have our kitchen, were library goers are welcome to eat and we have even different size rooms to rent if someone wishes to stay for an extended period of time.” Minseok explained to her further as she handed off her coat to a castle hand at the entranceway.

              The library was bigger than she imagined. The face of the castle jutted out of the mountainside, but it’s true enormity was hidden within the base. It seemed almost like another world- the warm color of the wood, the royal color-stained rugs along the floor and the light that filtered in from the ceiling-reaching windows stunned Sooji. It was almost overwhelming- where should she start first? What section was she looking for? What _was_ that giant skeleton hanging from the ceiling?

              “Minseok,” she asked timidly, “where do I even start?”

              He laughed, “I think the books you’re looking for are in the upstairs study. I’ll take you there myself.”

              They walked on and Sooji couldn’t help but look up as they walked up the staircase, further observing the skeleton.

              “That’s a skeleton of my father’s,” Minseok began and caught Sooji as she tripped on a stair as the ascent. “Please be careful!” he let out a short laugh.

              “Sorry, I just can’t help but look at it.”

              “We can cut through this staircase here and we’ll go to the second floor and look at it closer if you want?”

              “Can we?” her eyes lit up.

              They did as he had suggested and up close the skeleton was so much more amazing to her- her eyes opened widely as she studied it intently.

              “So you said it was your father’s? Did he hunt it?”

              “No, not exactly.” He leaned on the railing. “Just like you, he can transform, only… Engels can transform into large beings that are meant to protect this earth. There are three forms.” He held out three fingers, “The first form is called a Guardian, usually a general transformation to protect maybe the city, let’s say.” He began to walk towards the end of the grand hallway again and Sooji followed suit. “The second form, is as big as this, but it has flesh and skin and all that to cover it. It only has strength and power like any normal beast would. The third form is this one.”

              “Eh?” she was caught off-guard.

              “In times of imminent need, when the world is in danger, this Engel Beast form comes true. It has no flesh or muscles, or eyes. It is just bones. An Engel can transform into one of these Engel Beasts by holding an Engel Crystal,” Minseok explained as he pushed an elevator button and waited for a moment, “I’m not sure how the transformation comes about, but when it does- watch out.”

              “Is it really that powerful?” she asked as they stepped into the elevator.

              “It’s just pure energy, so you tell me. I can remember one book where they have collected drawings of all of the Engel Beasts, we can take a look at that book when we get to the study.”

              It was a wonder how Minseok had memorized this place- there were many winding hallways with half a dozen doors on this floor. The atmosphere was different as well- with no windows and only ice shards to light the way- the air felt cold as well.

              “Are you cold again?” it was as if he had read her mind.

              “We don’t allow many people into these rooms, so there’s no need to keep it warm for guests.” He said and he paused at a door, rummaging in his pocket.

              Pulling out a keycard, he placed his hand on the scanner and swiped the card with the other hand. A heavy-sounding lock clicked open and they were granted access. Inside, the room was dark and when Minseok used his PA as a light source, Sooji could see that there were a few bookshelves inside but the number of old-style-bound books on them were scarce, and scrolls were placed alongside them.

               Sooji began looking through some of the books first, touching them gently and seeing if anything was of interest.

              “Minseok,” a voice came from the door and it chilled her. Looking towards it, she recognized the man in the doorway and immediately brought her body to a courteous bow, for standing in its frame was the Engel Glacies himself. “May I have a word with you?”

              “Yes, father.” He spoke and excused himself for a moment to speak with the Engel, who shut the door to muffle their conversation.

 

              Minseok returned with a smile and was followed in the room by Glacies, who seemed more courteous than before. Sooji began to bow again and he stopped her, telling her once was enough.

              “Sooji, if there are any books please feel free to take them with you back to your home.” He spoke kindly. “I understand that you are close with my son”-Sooji shot Minseok a momentary glare and returned her gaze on his father, who chuckled- “and whenever you are finished with him he will bring them back to the library for you.”

              “That’s wonderful, thank you.” Sooji spoke with a slight smile and bowed once more before the man left afterwards.

              Minseok helped her choose a few more books and scrolls from this room, and brought her back to the main hallway, where they chose a few more books. Minseok had them wrapped in a special bundle for her, to prevent them from being damaged while being moved outside of the library.

              In the far distance, Sooji watched the bustle inside of the area as people walked back and forth and her eye caught someone on the first floor below her- it was undeniably Taekwoon and she smiled to herself with a hum. He had always been a part of ice, even when she first met him, but she had never imagined him in the city itself.  His demeanor, however, was different than the one that she knew. It seemed distant and even with a few books in his hands, he seemed like another person.

              “I wonder what really happened to him for those three years.” She spoke to herself as she observed him more, watching as he scanned the shelves for something else and pointed to each book title as he searched.

              “The books are ready,” Minseok spoke as he put a light hand on her arm, “are you sure you can’t stay a little longer?” he whined a little.

              “Yes, I better be going.” She nodded and as she began to pull her gaze away from Taekwoon, she noticed a tall figure dressed in a white robe greet him and put his arm around Taekwoon’s shoulder.

              “Minseok,” she spoke without taking her eyes off of them, “do you know that man in the white robes? He looks oddly familiar.”

              “Ah,” he spoke with a slight caution in his voice, and he observed the stranger for himself, “I… don’t seem to recall. I don’t know who he is.”

              She watched him a bit more and the stranger turned to look at her and smiled. Though she was sure the smile was supposed to be friendly, it gave her a strange and sudden fear; though she returned a smile to be polite, she was unsure of him. Shaking herself of her fears, she was escorted by Minseok to his vehicle again with the load of books inside, and off they went back to her apartment.

              “Thank you so much, I’ll look through these and copy what I need and send them back as soon as I can.” She held his hand in thanks and he gave her a smile, squeezing it lightly. When she tried to take her hand back, he held it tighter and began to laugh as she struggled.

              “I would say ‘don’t get so overwhelmed’ but your face is so blank, I couldn’t tell until the last minute.” He snidely remarked. “But don’t worry yourself, I’m off now. And don’t worry about showing your emotions around me, I would appreciate it if you were comfortable showing them more often.” She thanked him once more and waved as he disappeared.

              She took time to rest herself for a moment before her HM spoke up.

              “Madam, we must get you ready for your endeavors tonight. I’ve calculated the route, and it will take you approximately half an hour to arrive at your destination if you take your hovercar, which I would suggest you do, due to the eminent snowstorm approaching.”

              “How long do I have until I have to leave?”

              “Around twenty three minutes.”

              “Excellent.” She smiled and retreated to her room and stood in front of her closet.

              The screen on the closet expanded, and the HM created a high chair for Sooji to sit in while she input the event into the closet’s keyboard as well as her desired mood. She waited only a short moment before multiple outfits were put together and she sorted through them until she found one that she felt would suit her for the night. Choosing it, the closet dinged and opened the door and before her were the clothes neatly laid out on a small table. They were pressed and cleaned as if they were new, in fact, if clothes were returned to the closet with any snags or holes, the would be sewn up using tiny robotic needles and matching thread. Of course, not everyone had a fully-functioning closet such as this, but Sooji was lucky enough to have her father pay for this service completely, and she was truly grateful.

              Changing into her new clothes, the HM prepared her new hair and makeup and once again she was out the door with Izzy on her wrist disguised as a fashionable bracelet. Stepping into the hovercar that was called for her, the coordinates of the home were punched in and the car sped off.

              “Izzy,” she asked of her PA, “can you show me the list of people invited to this party?”

              Looking over the names, she could only recognize Chanyeol and the one who had invited him: Jaehyung Park. She had taken a class with him in her first year of the school. It was a general class, and they had been partners for a project once, and since then they had developed a fond friendship. However, once the class was over, their communications stopped; it was most likely due to them both being busy in separate fields. It would be interesting to meet this group of people, for sure, and she hoped that she would be able to get along with the new personalities she would encounter.

              Chanyeol met her outside of the house, and hugged her upon meeting her. His hug was warm and it made her comfortable.  He walked ahead of her up the staircase, and when they arrived at the door, he showed his pass as a confirmation to Jae’s HM that he was a guest on the list, and Sooji showed her pass as well and the door was opened and both were let in.

              There was music playing in the background softly, and the tune was both familiar and new to Sooji’s ears, as if she had heard it in passing or in a distant memory, but never was able to stop and listen to the tune in its entirety. The inner area of the apartment caught her attention for a moment, and she took it all in. Taking off her shoes, her socks padded around the wood floors as she followed Chanyeol on his small, albeit unnecessary quest to find Jaehyung, both were quite tall. Spotting him, he was in front of the fireplace trying to use his electric powers to spark a fire in the fireplace, but was unable to do so, groaning under his breath.

              “Need some help there?” Park smirked and Jae turned his head around quickly, doing a double take before a smile broke out onto his face.

              “No!” he playfully turned around again and desperately tried to get it to spark and ignite once more before he laughed, “Just a little ember.” Jae squeezed his fingers together and Park shot a small fire from his pointer finger and it ignited the fireplace immediately.

              The small group of people sitting on the couches nearby clapped at Park’s ‘trick’ and he bowed to them with a prize-winning smile on his face. After his laugh, he introduced Sooji to Jae.

              “This is my ‘plus one’. Her name is Sooji and she goes to Ryounin for architecture.”

              “Oh!” he sounded sarcastically enthused, “ _Architecture_.”

              Sooji showed a small smile and nodded politely, unsure of what to say; unsure if he even remembered who she was. She felt oddly displeased that he didn’t remember her, though she knew she shouldn’t expect anyone to do so after such a long time.

              “Is that what you were doing this entire time?” he laughed and slapped her shoulder, “It’s been a long time, right?”

              Sooji’s eyes lit up a bit and he could tell that she had been nervous about it.

              “I really thought you wouldn’t recognize me!” she laughed and held her face to prevent it from getting red out of embarrassment, “It has been a long time! What have you been up to these days?”

              “Wait, you guys know each other?” Park chimed in. “That’s right, Sooji said something about that.”

              “We were in the same class in our first year, but after that we lost touch.” Sooji nodded.

              “Which was a shame, you always knew the best places to eat.” He laughed.

              “Your apartment is super impressive, do you live here by yourself?”

              “No, my roommate lives with me,” he gestured towards the loft above their open kitchen and Sooji could only see two boys upstairs working at a single desk. “he’s the one with the blonde-ish hair, and his friend is on the left with the dark hair. Already working on homework or something like that- _who knows_.”

              “Homework, already?” she tried to muffle her laughter.

              “Yeah, he’ll come down when the food is ready.”

              “What’s for dinner anyway?” Chanyeol laughed, “I’m a bit hungry. You too, right, Sooji?”

              “I have no idea what the HM is cooking tonight. Honestly, I don’t really know how the HM works- we just got him. He calls me ‘Sir’. It’s weird but whatever; _I’m_ not the one paying for him.”

              Sooji chuckled a bit before receiving a glass of water that appeared to materialize from nowhere. Thanking the HM, she took the glass and sipped from it as the conversation continued.

              After an hour, Sooji took a look around the apartment from where she stood and noticed that there were more people in the apartment than she had initially seen. As unintentional as it was, she had stayed by Park’s side the entire night, and was sure that it gave the impression that the two of them were a couple. Grumbling at the thought, she sought to get away from him for a moment but Jae beat her to the punch with his announcement.

              “Food is ready!” Jae announced into the room and everyone went into the kitchen to grab a plate, and all sat around the fireplace- some on the stairs that separated the low-standing subfloor and the main floor, some on the couches, and Park- right on the fireplace edge. Sooji was given a seat on one of the couches between the only other girls in the room: Somin and Jiwoo.  After short conversation, she had discovered that Somin was in the Light domain, and Jiwoo was in Sound. Sooji didn’t do much talking, but asked a lot of questions, finding that people are easy to talk to when talking about themselves, and it avoids the need for her to say more than a few words about herself, if any.

              “There he goes!” Jae called out and looked up to the second-floor loft, which prompted everyone to look as well, “Younghyun finally comes down out of hiding!”

              A few other boys jeered and clapped and Younghyun waved at everybody.

              “ _And_ he brought Wonpil with him!” another boy spoke up.

              Younghyun had caught Sooji’s eye and he smiled politely at her, but her natural reaction was to laugh. The unintentional scoffing embarrassed her slightly and she turned around to resume eating. He seemed to fit in easily among the group and was equal parts playful and serious.

              “I think it’s time for a mood breaker!” Jaehyung spoke loudly held up a black bowl, and when he brought it to eye-level, there were hundreds of paper strips inside. “We each gotta pick one and do whatever, or say whatever it says on this strip. Introduce yourself first, of course, all that, whatever. I didn’t make this game, my HM did but I’m taking all the credit.” He laughed, “Everyone will pick one to begin with and we’ll go in a circle starting wi-th…”he spun around and caught Sooji trying to dodge his eyesight, “Sooji!”

              “Great.” She stood up with the others to grab a slip of paper from the bowl.

              “Uh,” she began, “I’m Sooji Bae, and my paper says-”

              “Power.” She heard a whispering and she looked over to Chanyeol who repeated, “Tell them your power.”

              “Oh, really?” she whispered back, “Do I have to?”

              “You don’t have to,” Jae interrupted, “but now that we know you have one- whether you want to say anything or not is up to you, but I think only maybe three people here don’t have a power, so you’re among friends.”

              “She shapeshifts!” Chanyeol yelled out and Sooji pursed her lips in surprised, playful anger and inhaled deeply.

              “Yes, I... shapeshift.” she glared at Park and he laughed as she continued, “and my paper says, ‘Tell us your greatest wish.”

              She thought for a moment and while she pondered a million and a half wishes entered her mind before her face lit up.”

              “My wish- I just want to live a good life.”

              Many people nodded as she sat down and the girl to her right stood up.

              “ _My real wish,”_ Sooji thought to herself, “ _I want to meet my dad.”_

              “Hello,” she introduced herself with a slight accent to her tone of voice, her words staccatoing here and there, “my name is Jeon Jiwoo. I am from Sound, um, and my paper says, oh, easy, ‘What is my favorite flavor?’ and it is kwelt.”

              There was a bit of silence as they waited for her to continue speaking, but she sat down with a large smile on her face, happy to have said her piece.

              “Kwelt,” a boy from the other side of the room, “is a fruit and it tastes very sweet. _Very_ sweet.” The group nodded in agreement, thanking him for his explanation.

              As people continued to talk and comment on other people’s answers, Sooji was doing what she did best: observe. With her PA disguised as a bracelet, it recorded the conversations and bits and pieces of observations that she had- anything to help her remember their faces if she happened to pass by them later on.

              “ _Wonpil has no powers, yet you can feel like he radiates powers of some kind. I wonder if he has any hidden secrets. He might be depressed. Loves to hold onto people, but if people show affection back he denies them. He’s interesting. Create a new pattern for him: Pattern W.”_ her PA wrote out a note as she thought about it.

 _“I wish,”_ Sooji thought to herself again, “ _I didn’t analyze everyone around me. I wish I didn’t figure out who they were before I met them. I wish I wasn’t like this for a day- where I wasn’t suspicious of everybody. I don’t have any reason to be anymore.”_

              “And here I was thinking that Younghyun was hard to read!” her mind came back to the conversation at hand- how many people had passed by? She tried to sneakily find out, but everyone was silent- nobody was giving their answers.

              Jae was amazed at something, and Sooji continually waited until she figured that it was _her_ they were talking about and she held her breath a little bit and looked towards the floor.

              “Oh, no, please! I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant that you haven’t reacted to anything going on.”

              “Ah,” Sooji covered, “I was just spacing out thinking about the work that I have to do when I get home.” She smiled politely. “I’m sorry.”

              “Well, it was my turn and my paper had said to speak aloud the thought I had last and that was it.” Jae explained.

              Sooji nodded, still slightly lost in thought.

              His roommate stood up and introduced himself and read off his paper, ‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’” it read.

              “Should I walk by again?” the person sitting next to him said without problem and everyone in the room laughed.

              “Guess that’s my answer!” Younghyun smiled and sat down again, “I guess I do. It really just depends on the girl. I think I’ll just know when it’s her.”

              “ _The boy sitting next to Younghyun has the nickname Suga. Not sure why, but he’s more tart than sweet. He is Pattern B_.” Another note was written and saved.

              When everyone had finished, Jaehyung took two of his classmates and took them aside: one Sooji had noted was named Jongup, and the other, Matthew. Out of his pocket she saw him hand off a few credits (a form of tangible currency) to the boys and they left the apartment building for a moment as the HM cleaned up the plates and forks and leftovers and the company began to talk amongst themselves more, and Sooji found a comfortable place to observe them all: the iron steps of a spiral staircase leading up to Younghyun’s room. She had figured, being out of the way allowed her to relax and not be pressured to say a lot. For once in her life, she felt very out of place- she wasn’t one to talk a lot to anybody she didn’t know, and even people she did know- there were a lot of details about her life that she would prefer that nobody knew about it. 

              “So, what, you just observe people all day?” Younghyun spoke next to her as he took a cup from a space above their sink, “Would you like something warm to drink? The guys will be back with alcohol, later, if that’s your kind of thing. I’m just getting this for one of the little guys.”

              “Oh, no thank you, I’m alright.” She turned herself around to thank him face-to-face and he smiled in return as he brought the two mugs to two boys: Jihoon and Seungcheol, who were nicknamed Woozi and S.Coups respectively. Their names appeared on the mugs as soon as their hands touched it, and would remain that way for the duration of their stay. 

              “If you’ll excuse me, though, I need to get something from upstairs.” He spoke and she stood from her seat, “But you never answered me, do you like, observe people or are you uncomfortable- you can go home if you’re uncomfortable.”

              “No, it’s not that I’m uncomfortable,” she lied to him, sensing a hint of unnecessary sass in his voice as he leaned over the railing, telling her she could come up if she didn’t want to scream her answers, and she did so, climbing only a few stairs at first until he repeated himself, and she stood at the top of the stairwell, “it’s just a bad habit that I have. I like to figure out whom I would be comfortable talking to, whom I should avoid, that kind of thing. It makes me seem really distant, but I don’t quite care.”

              To Sooji, everybody had a pattern. (Think Myers Briggs test with a couple of extra letters). Boys were the easiest people to choose patterns for. To her, they were more simple in their emotions and personalities than girls were. Multiple times, Sooji had predicted a correct pattern for a boy, and augmented her words in order to get a certain reaction from those people. Tested, tried and true, Sooji’s system, while still having some minor  flaws here and here in regards to how different somebody might be, had been in her head her entire life. She knew how to get along with each category of person, and how to avoid the others.

              Her over-analytical brain came naturally to her, and she had tried explaining it to Park once, only to have him stop her because it wasn’t making sense, but would always ask about it to keep her entertained at times, since he knew it was a big part of her life.

              “So, what about me? Hate me yet?” he pried with a smile.

              “No, actually.”

              “Oh?” he said as he sat underneath the railing along the edge of the loft, allowing his feet to dangle. Sooji opted to lean against the railing and watch the group of people below her with critical eyes.  “Is mine too _mysterious_.”

              “I really just don’t care.” Sooji snickered: she was testing him.

              “Explain that to me.” He took the bait.

              Before Sooji could think of anything next to say, the two boys who had left walked in with two cases of two different types of alcohol. HM provided for anybody who wanted, a shot glass and a drinking glass, as well as a glass of water. Sooji and the boy were handed a clear, green bottle and he opened it with a trick that made her laugh. Everyone was poured one shot glass, and rose it in a toast.

              “To the music engineers of the future!”

              “And the rest of us who aren’t going to be doing that!” someone else cut in.

              “To all of us!” a third person chimed in and everyone cheered, clanked their glasses and drank.

              “Do you drink often?”

              “No, not at all.”

              “You don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.” He smiled as he poured her another shot glass.

              “I guess I should be thankful for this glass, then?”

              “I’m just giving you the option, it’s up to you to take it or not.”

              “If I wasn’t more careful, I’d say you had ulterior motives.” 

“Is that what they’re calling a good time now?”

              She accepted his answer, bringing up something else in its stead. Explaining it wasn’t something she liked to do- a lot of people argued with her, saying that drinking was either ‘not fit for her’ or it was that she was weak.

              Laugh after side-splitting laugh, the crowd sparked with charisma and conversation. Laughter filled the air and the mood was cheery. Sooji took note of how Park would occasionally look up to make sure she was okay. “ _Or to make sure that he doesn’t have to kill a man.”_ Sooji joked to herself and laughed at it.

              “Do you know all of these people?” she dodged a question of his further as she observed the friend who was with Younghyun in the loft earlier singing with a spoon in his hand as his ‘microphone’ and one hand swaying in the air.

              “I know quite a few of them. They usually come over and stay at our house because we’re constantly working on projects and music.”

              “That sounds nice.” She smiled and entertained the thought in a daydream for a little while, trying to imagine which friends he was referring to.

              “What about you?”

              “What about me?”

              “You and Park seem really close, are you guys best friends? Dating? He and Taekwoon keep looking up here- I assume that I’ve got a big ‘X’ on my forehead and I’m marked for death if I even touch you or something.”

              Sooji laughed a bit out of character.

              “No, we’re not dating. Park has been a friend for so long, I’ve actually forgotten how we met in the first place. Takewoon and I met in our freshman year, the same time I met Jaehyung.” She recalled and her brows knitted for a little bit. “I hadn’t seen him for three years and he was pronounced dead-”

              “Jaehyung?”

              “Taekwoon.”

              “Ah.”

              “My old roommate even attended his funeral, you know the one I was talking to you about earlier.”

              Younghyun nodded.

              “He had undergone some experiments,” Sooji spoke and she could feel the alcohol hitting her senses, “And now he has two powers.”

              “A mix, huh?”

              “Yeah. And we’re both dark, you and me.” Sooji smiled, “I’ve only met one other person from the same faction and it was only a brief meeting at that.”

              “Who’d you meet?”

              “A boy about my age named Jiho.”

              “Zico?”

              Sooji nodded and swayed her head from side to side as she let her finger wander around the rim of the shot glass.

              “Oh, I know him, well, I know _of_ him.”

              “He was very sweet- very helpful.” She smiled and kicked her feet in the air- the alcohol was _really_ hitting her.

              “I think your drunk type is ‘cute’. You’ve started acting _way_ cuter than when we first met.”

              “What did you think of me when you first saw me? I laughed…”

              “I was like, ‘who is this girl? Why is she laughing at me?’ but you looked real cold, so it was also kind of like, intimidating. I thought you were like, I don’t know, some super student in our field only to find out that you’re not even in the same major.”

              “Everybody does.” Sooji pouted.

              “Does what?”

              “Thinks I’m intimidating.” She was handed the glass of water and drank from it. She was pretending.

              “I don’t think it’s a bad thing.” He told her and that’s when she noticed that he didn’t seem drunk at all and she grew envious of his skill.

              “Sooji are you okay?” Park called up from below the loft space and she nodded with a small smile on her face. “Sooji, are you drinking a lot?”

              With a small, pouted lip, she shook her head and he knew the answer.

              “Sooji, no more drinking for you.” Park said as he took a sip of a drink in his hand. “You weren’t supposed to be drinking in the first place.”

              “You’re not the boss of me.” She whined in a small voice.

              “Don’t make me take you home.”

              “No!” she whined, “I’m having… a lot of fun.”

              “Fun!” he entertained her, “Just make sure _fun_ doesn’t get out of hand, okay?”

              As she nodded her ears caught a noise and rotated slightly towards the source- the window. Just as her HM had said, the snow began to falland she grew excited. Shakily standing from her spot, she used the railing to get to the end of the loft and sat near the window. Placing her head on the wall and enjoying the sight of the snow, she was joined by Younghyun, who sat at his desk chair behind her, lounging by putting his feet on the railing. The sound was comfortable to her and she began to nod off to sleep.

              “Hey! No sleeping!” she was shocked awake by Jaehyung who had reached up and grabbed her foot and she growled to his delight.

              “I wasn’t sleeping I was resting my head!” She argued.

              For as much as Sooji didn’t drink, it always amazed people that she could bounce back from her intoxicated state in almost the snap of a finger.

              “Likely story!” he argued back, “But are you staying or going- the HM said the weather is going to get really bad, and we’ve got room for everybody here, but if you’re leaving you better get going like ten minutes ago.”

              “Is Park still here?”

              “Yeah, Park is staying.” He nodded.

              “I’ll stay, then.” She smiled.

              “Park, your girlfriend is staying.”

              “Oh no she’s not!” he yelled.

              “But you said you’re staying.”

              “I mean the girlfriend thing!” he barked at Jaehyung, and looked up to Sooji and commanded, “Just because you’re a little intoxicated right now doesn’t mean you can stay here! It’s not proper for a lady to stay in a man’s house!”

              “Buiktrot!” she cursed at him, “Since when have you _ever_ said that? You always are begging for me to stay at your house!”

              “Nope, Sooji you’re going home!” he climbed the staircase and walked to where she was seated.

              “You’re trying to make me have no fun again.” She pouted and he helped her up despite the fact that she was able to stand on her own at this point.

              “I don’t like what you’re plotting, because you wanting to have ‘fun’ and normal people wanting to have fun never lines up.” He looked at her with knowing eyes. “And tell your PA to stop recording, you little theif.”

              Sooji couldn’t help but grin because he was right- he knew too much.

              Turning around she went to thank Younghyun, but he had been asleep peacefully in his chair and not wanting to disturb him she left him alone. It was a wonder he slept through all of the yelling and noise they had made, though, and once again she envied him.

              Sooji thanked Jaehyung and the other guests and quickly exchanged PA addresses in order to contact them again, fully knowing she wouldn’t. Park gave her a hug and put her into her hovercar before returning indoors. With a heart of mixed emotions, she arrived home and showered once more.

 

              “Are you in love? I think you are.” Her HM spoke to her as she untied the stack of books that waited for her in the living room.

              “What?” she made a gagging face as she looked through the assortment of books she was able to borrow. It was a feat in itself that she was even allowed to have these books outside of the library- for nobody was allowed to take books out; Sooji wondered what kind of strings Minseok had to pull to be given this kind of permission.

              “You’ve been sighing since you came home, not to mention your PA is riddled full of conversations with this boy.” A clearscreen was brought up with all of the file data for the conversations, and she quickly made the clearscreen go away. “Should I show you the heartrate data from these conversations?” he pried.

              “He just has the same pattern as me, is all. It’s very rare to find someone with a pattern so close.”

              “And what about Haras? And Nagem?”

              “Yes, those are such great friends since our patterns are very similar. I think to just finally find a _boy_ with a similar pattern is refreshing.” She found herself smiling but forced pursed lips as she began to scan through pages of the first book.

              “A Study of Engels.” She read obnoxiously aloud. “Part One:” she sighed, suddenly very unenthusiastic.

              “Why not go to bed?” her HM offered, “You’ll have plenty of time to read during the storm when you wake up.”

              “Alright.” She huffed, closing the book and placing it on the small pile before retreating to her bedroom.

             

              Getting comfortable in her bed, she closed her eyes before her PA binged and informed her that it had received a message- but it was too late, for she had fallen asleep quickly.

              When Sooji woke the next morning, the snow had been coming down hard for the last couple of hours, and it brought a smile to her face. The street was overflowing with it, and she was glad that she had lived so far up- and that she didn’t have to go out in it. Stretching, she left her bed and immediately Izzy rang a tone to signify that she had a message.

              “Could you read the message for me?” she called to her PA and it did as it was instructed.

               “Sent at one fifteen A-M.,” it called out, “Sooji I hope you arrived home safely, sorry I fell asleep. Let’s grab a coffee sometime together. Don’t be a stranger!”

              “Eh,” Sooji sighed as she pulled out a mug from the cabinet and asked it to prepare her tea with honey, “He was nice but definitely seems like someone who gets a lot of girls. I don’t think I’ll be getting coffee with him anytime soon.”

              Sooji received her tea and set it on the coffee table before she opened the books again, finding a new interest had come along with the new day. It was halfway through her handful of page turns that she became distracted by the snow for a moment and was shaken from her daydream only by a ring of the doorbell. She jolted. Who could possibly want to come during this kind of weather?

              “HM, please show me who is at the door?” she asked and immediately the door became invisible. It was a one-way view, so she wouldn’t have to fear that the stranger on the other side would see her in her pajamas, but to her surprise this was no stranger.

              “What?!” she exclaimed and the man behind the door lifted up the corner of his mouth- he had heard her. “What on earth?”

 


	5. BONUS CODE: FREEDOM

              “Father, where are you headed to?” an inquisitive Lucifer peered from behind the door of his father’s study.

              Turning around from his wardrobe, he smiled at his son briefly before returning his gaze to the contents of his closet.

              “I am headed out to Hyouga, I haven’t paid a visit to your Uncle Glacies in a while.”

              “Are you going to the library?” the boy’s eyes were wide as he entered the room.

              “Would you care to come with me?”

              “Oh please!” he said as he began to go towards the door once more, “I’ll put on my travel clothes- don’t leave without me!”

              “I would be best to take him,” Lucifer muttered to himself with a sigh, “the last time I left he grew up too much without me there.”

              Putting on his robe, he took his PA and threw it lightly onto his wrist, and it wrapped itself like a bracelet. He then left his home, waiting for his son inside of the vehicle. Once Lucifer joined him, they sped off, first upwards toward the sky, then east towards the icy Hyouga.

              “What kind of books are you looking for?” his bright-eyed son asked while pressed against the side windows.

              “Just anything that will interest me these days.”

              “What would that be?”

              “Hm?”

              “What books interest you? I hardly see you reading these days because you’ve been far too busy.” His son was frank with him and it made Lucis laugh.

              “Books on Engel Crystals.” Lucis smiled, “Oh, but, they’re not for me.”

              “No?”

              “No, they’re for Uncle Nocits. He’s so interested in them these days, so I thought it would be a nice gesture to get him some of the old books on the topics.”

              “That’s very nice of you.”

              “By the way,” he ruffled his son’s hair, “when did you turn twelve?”

              “It really seemed like overnight, didn’t it?” his son was excited, “Maybe it’s a growth spurt!”

              “Don’t grow up too quickly.” Lucis smiled.  


 

              “Look, we’re here.”

              Exiting the vehicle, they donned the heavy, white-fur coats they had brought with them and walked about the city at a leisurely pace. Lucifer clutched onto his father’s jacket as they walked, for he was too busy looking up at all of the sights in the city to look where he was going.

              “I feel like I’ve been here a lot before, but I’ve only been here once, right?”

              “That’s right, only once. Perhaps it had a profound impact on you, so you remember it well.”

              “No, I feel like…”

              “We’re here, look forward.” Lucis said and his son gasped, for the castle inside of the mountain was towering before him and he couldn’t help but stare for a moment before running to catch up with his father who had already began going up the staircase that greeted them.

              Inside, they gave their coats to the attendants at the door and proceeded down the long corridor. As soon as they entered the main hallway, Lucis knew the was being watched but proceeded anyway.             

              “That skeleton is huge!”

              “Your uncle can transform into that thing.” Lucis spoke to his son, who was already looking for a way to get a closer look at it, “but your father can transform into one even cooler looking than that one.”

              “Really? I want to see!”

              “Someday you will.” He smiled, “But first, let’s find what we came here for.”

              “I’m going to ask that nice lady at the desk where she keeps the books you’re looking for.”

              “Go right ahead.” Lucis lightly pushed Lucifer in the direction of the woman who was seated at a circular desk in the center of the grand hallway and up a few sets of long stairs that spanned from each side.  “I’m going to go to a different room for now, stay in the area.”

              The boy agreed and Lucis head immediately upstairs, making sure to keep himself quiet and unseen. He knew that the books he searched for were in an upper room held under lock and key, and if he was correct, the room would be opened for that hour. It would be easy to slip in and out with the information he was searching for.

              “Lucis.” An all-too familiar voice called behind him and he turned around slowly. “I thought I had asked you _not_ to return to my library, and yet here you are. In fact, I think it was in this very hallway I told you to beat it, if I’m correct?”

              “I’m not after books, this time.”

              Glacies’ eyes sharpened for a moment and waited for Lucis to complete his answer.

              “I’m after that girl you have here.”

              “A girl?”

              “The shapeshifter.”

              “I’m going to ask you one last time to leave this library.” Glacies was unusually cold.

              “She’s dangerous, you know. She should come with me, I’m only trying to help.”

              Glacies thought for a moment, before he pursed his lips. “I’ll take the bait, _why_?”

              “She’s an Engel Shifter.”

              “A what?”

              “I’m leaving.” Lucis smiled and walked past Glacies who was lost in his thoughts for a moment before continuing to walk to the next room.

 

              “Minseok,” Glacies called as he entered the room, and the girl who had been with his son immediately brought her body to a courteous bow. “May I have a word with you?”

              “Yes, father.” He spoke and excused himself for a moment to speak with the Engel, who shut the door to muffle their conversation.

              “Minseok, who exactly is your friend, here?” he asked his son.

              “Her name is Sooji she goes to Ryounin for Architecture.”

              “Her power, Minseok, I heard a disturbing tale that I only half believe-can she shapeshift?”

              “Yeah, that’s true.” His son nodded.

              “Can she shapeshift into old creatures, beasts of Cyn, that nature?”

              The eavesdropping Lucis smiled widely- this was information that no book could give him.

              Minseok nodded calmly.

              “It’s best that she doesn’t stay in the library then.”

              “Why not?”

              “Lucis is here.” Glacies frowned, “Probably up to no good, as usual.”

              “But aren’t we Lucis aligned.”

              Glacies seemed upset at the reminder, and ushered his son back into the room. Sooji was looking throw the different books when she turned to greet him once more.

              “Sooji, if there are any books please feel free to take them with you back to your home.” He spoke kindly. “I understand that you are close with my son”-Sooji shot Minseok a momentary glare and returned her gaze on his father, who chuckled- “and whenever you are finished, he will bring them back to the library for you.”

              “That’s wonderful, thank you.” Sooji spoke with a slight smile and bowed once more before the man left afterwards.

              “Even better that Sooji will have the books. I’m sure I can borrow them from her easier than I could Glacies. Such a horrible thing that my own cousin doesn’t trust me in the library after one little mistake.”

              Lucis hurriedly made his way to the main floor of the library, to make it appear as if he had gone down when he was first told. In the distance, he spotted a familiar dark figure and made his way towards him, his sigh could be heard from a mile away and it made him laugh. As Taekwoon searched through the books, Lucis observed as he read each title as he went along, making sure to leave no book unturned in his wake.

              “My dear Taekwoon, what are you searching for? Perhaps I could be of assistance?” Lucis draped his arm around the boy’s shoulders who immediately stiffened his posture, and Lucis could feel how uncomfortable the boy was, but pretended not to notice.

              “I’m looking for books to read.”

              “And water is wet, the sky is blue-” Lucis was sarcastic, “what _kind_ of books to read?”

              “I wish to read about theater.” The boy confessed.

              “Theater?” he smiled, “Trying to get ahead in your school work already?”

              “Yes, sir.”

              “There’s no need to be formal.” He smiled and could feel the gaze of eyes upon him, and looked towards the balcony where he spotted Sooji and smiled at her.

              “There you are.” Lucis muttered as he smiled and after she returned the smile he turned back towards Taekwoon, “I need you to do me a small favor, Taekwoon. Consider it a parting gift.”

              Taekwoon’s grip on the books in his hand loosened, and he dropped then, shaking in the words that he had just heard whispered into his ear.


	6. CODE: THIRTEEN

 

              Sooji could not believe her eyes, even after fully knowing who it was behind the door.

              “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He cracked a forced smile from the side of his face- it was like he had practiced this introduction before.

              “I feel like I’m looking at a ghost right now!” she shook herself from her stupor and invited him inside. Taking off his shoes, he placed them on top of a heated grate in the corner of the entryway in order for them to dry off while the HM took his bag, who-knows-where inside of the house mechanics in order to dry the bag and its soaking contents. Next, he rid himself of his jacket, the snow falling off of him as he did and placed it on a hook the HM created for him and again, took it away out of sight in order to, what Sooji hoped, was dry it.

              She was at a loss for words as he stood in front of her and she couldn’t help but stare.

              “Is that all you’re going to do?” his eyes wandered this way and that and his words were stiff.

              Sooji took a step closer and leaned into a hug, which he hesitantly returned despite being cold and wet, but neither of them cared. It had been almost nine years since they had seen each other, and she pulled herself away to look at him once more.

              Suddenly, her eyes lowered and her mood changed, and she hit him in the shoulder, yelling, “Where the hell have you been? You come to my house- who the heck knows how you even _found_ me after all this time- walk in here like you own the place with that stupid, fake smirk on your face and for what? What do you want?”

              His mood was quiet and was serious for a moment, but tried to hide his smile which burst into laughter, “I’m so glad you haven’t changed!”

              “What do you want, coffee? Tea? A punch in the face?” She snickered.

              “What was that last one?” he asked as he stepped inside to take a look at the things around her living room as she stepped into the nearby open kitchen. His face was stern- why was he analyzing the layout of her home?

              “Do you still take your coffee the same way? Black as your soul- I mean your hair?”

              He laughed without turning his head, and she took that as an answer. As the mug prepared the coffee, she observed him from behind the counter.

              “ _So many people who had gone away from my past are suddenly appearing in front of me,_ ” she thought to herself, her inner voice sounded morose, “ _it makes me feel like it’s bad news, like I’m going to die and my friends are going to visit me before the end_.”

              “Are you going to watch my coffee get cold?” his voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she was staring at him across the counter. He took a sip of the coffee and smiled.

              “As good as this is, it doesn’t make it a good as you did.”

              “That’s cause I used to spit in it.” She commented back and he choked on his sip and she was smiling at him and he could only smile back, unsure if she was telling the truth or not.

              “What the heck are you laughing at?”

              “Something stupid?”

              “You laughing at yourself?” she threw up an eyebrow.

              His face grew neutral and didn’t respond- he was completely unlike the person she knew before. It was as if the military had taken his soul, and he was fighting hard to appear like a normal citizen. The snow grew harder and it caught both of their attention towards the windows for a moment before SooJi began to laugh, and the boy turned back towards her, waiting for a reason as to why she was laughing.

              “Ji Soo, do you remember that time that we skipped school to go to that racing tournament and it ended up blizarding?” Sooji asked as she returned to her books in the center of the living room.

              “Yet somehow I was the only one who ended up getting sick.” He peered over her shoulder to see what she was reading, but Sooji had become invested in it once more.

              It was about a half hour later that Sooji asked, “So what brought you to my house, anyway? It’s not like we had contact for all those years, so why now?”

              “Actually, it was your dad.”

              “Huh?”

              “Your dad told me that you didn’t have a roommate and asked if I would come here and stay for a while.”

              “How long is a while?” she looked up at him. “And how’d he know, _HM?_ ”

              “Don’t look at me… I _might_ have mentioned my concerns to your father but _never_ suggested him sending someone for you.”

              He was quiet as he looked down into his coffee cup that was refilling itself.

              “So you’re staying that long, huh?” she returned to reading the book. “I just don’t see why he thought it would be a good idea _not_ to tell me.”

              “Are you mad?”

              “A little… but I’ll send him a letter later.” She looked up at him.

              “What’re you reading anyway? You’ve got a lot of books and you studying isn’t really like you from what I can remember.”

              Her jaw hung open jokingly and he smiled widely, but still visibly forced. 

              “Very funny. I’m reading up on Engel and all that”-she made a circular gesture with her hands- “kind of stuff.”

              “Are you like, after some grail or something? You always were, uh, after a good chase.”

              “Kind of just curious about it.” She shrugged, she was dodging his questions.

              Even if they had been great childhood friends, she still had to be cautious about him, for a lot can happen during even the minutes you don’t pay attention to someone. Sooji was sure that, when she was able to guarantee that he was still the same friend she had known from before, that she could be more comfortable talking to him about things of that nature.

              “I saw your mom just before I came here.”

              Sooji froze and looked up at him with longing in her eyes- how long had it been since she herself went to pay a visit?

              “She looked good. It was easy to go see her because she’s right next to my mom, you know.”

               How was it?”

              “About the same, I think your dad or someone left flowers there before me, since they seemed recent. It was polished nicely as well.”

              “I haven’t been able to visit in maybe three years, I’ve been so busy.”

              “School keeps you that busy? Sounds like the Special Forces.”

              “Yeah, it’s a lot of work.”

              “What did you end up going into?”

              “Architecture.”

              “Oh!” he sounded sarcastically enthused, “ _Architecture_.”

              “I swear, everybody has the same damn response!” She huffed and he laughed.

              “Didn’t you want to go into, oh what was it, something like uh, police work?”

              “No that was _you_ and _this_ is you trying to derail this conversation into talking about the academy!”

              He couldn’t help but smile, “You mean Special Forces?”

              “Oh,” she repeated in the same manner he had done, “ _Special Forces_.”

              “It was great, thanks. I learned how to kill people in style.”

              “Sounds _great_.” She laughed, “Did you learn anything actually useful?”

              “Is that not useful enough?”

              “Wow, so you can kill someone but you still can’t cook a damn thing?” she chuckled, then gasped fakely, “Oh no, _that’s_ why you’re here, isn’t it?”

              “You’ve figured me out.” His monotonous tone was unsettling.

              “So, Mr. Special Forces, you wanna help me read these then we can grab dinner and a movie or something?”

              “Sure,” he plopped himself down on the opposite side of the low table and was attentive- he was as alert as if he was being given the highest orders, “what exactly am I looking for?”

              “Anything that might sound interesting that revolves the Engel crystals or powers or that kind of general field.”

              “Sounds good to me. Share with me what you find, too, I’m curious to see what kind of information is out there.”

              They sat with low music on alongside the rain sound from beyond the windows, in this low silence they read and called out bits of information to each other they found interesting, although, Sooji wouldn’t tell him everything. To her, he was a new person, and she had to treat him with the same kind of caution.

 

              Sooji could hear him muttering to himself as he was reading and looked up to see his facial expressions change as he did.

              “No way!” he yelled suddenly, “That can’t be true.”

              “Getting a little invested there, are we?” she laughed.

              “This is so interesting though, take a look, ‘Sooji is bored of reading and wants to go to eat something with the handsome Prince Ji Soo.’” He peered up at Sooji to see if she was paying attention and her smile caught his eye.

              “I’m pretty sure the word ‘handsome prince’ is not in that book.’ Sooji laughed and thought to herself how it sounded like children’s books that they used to read together in the past.

              “It’s right here, you want to read it?” he looked at her and waited.

              “Fine, let’s go grab something to eat then, you must be hungry anyway. Let me get changed and then we can go.”

 

              Once she shut her door, Sooji scrambled out of her clothes and her HM gave her the pieces to her outfit one by one and after donning them, she had it tie her hair back neatly and she was out the door. Using AJ pins, they walked together on the streets with the snow falling down even harder than before, and the coverage up to their shins.

              “What happened to your AJ pin before, you were soaked and frozen when you came to my door?”

              “We’re no strangers,” he said as he took her hand and put it around his arm, “but my pin was stolen by some punk on the street but I could care less.”

              “You, Mr. ‘I-learned-how-to-kill-people-in-style’, let someone steal from you and get away?”

              “I never said he got away.” He laughed, “I managed to catch him but when I threw the punch I damaged the pin, so it was useless after that. When was the last time you had Osi?” he shoved his hand in his pocket. Sooji could only think about what kind of damage he had done to the thief.

              “It must be ages, cause I can’t tell you even a remotely close date.” She laughed and touched her left shoulder to signal her PA, and noticed it was gone. “Oh, rats, I forgot my PA charging at home.”

              “It’s alright, we’re not going far,” he smiled, “and then it just means that you can’t keep busy.”

              “You mean I’ll _actually_ have to listen to what you’re saying.”

              “Oh, Sooji, how I love it that your wit hasn’t changed a bit. Mind me asking if you still don’t like to talk to new people, though?”

              “Not a chance.” She eyed him as they turned to enter the restaurant.

 

              “How’s your girlfriend, are you still together?” Sooji asked as she dug her knife into the bowl of Osi, cutting away at the thick crust to get to the creature’s delicious core.

              “We broke up before I even entered the academy. She said it was too hard on her.”

              “I’m sorry to hear that.”

              “It’s alright, it was a long time ago. What about you, dating anyone yet?”

              “No, I haven’t dated anyone in a long, long time. I did date this one complete bastard, though, and that’s what ruined it for me, I think.”

              “What was wrong with him?”

              “It was more like, what _wasn’t_ wrong with him. He wasn’t bad looking at all, better than average, a nice build, he could sing, he was smart- the works. On the inside, though, maybe he had an encounter with a Cyn beast or something but he was absolutely corrupt inside.”

              “That’s too bad. I wish I were around, I would have killed him for you.”

              “He absolutely ruined my life when we broke up, too.”

              “What happened?”

              “It was understandable that he didn’t want to talk to me, but everyone that used to be in our friend group, which was also your friend group, suddenly turned on me.”

              “Eh?” his expression grew darker as he listened more.

              “I was an outsider from that moment on. He spread lies about me that I couldn’t even begin to describe. He told me he would do it, too, because he knew that I wouldn’t fight back on it. Even when I tried, he had been so convincing that nobody believed me in the end. He was good at talking, good at using convincing words. It was strange that, after a while he spoke to me in an ancient language that I don’t understand. He wouldn’t look at me, he would turn around or cross the street if I was on the same sidewalk as him. If he saw me across the street, he would pick up his pace. Any friend of mine at the time was convinced that I was the enemy and no amount of talking would help- it was done from there and I was alone.”

              “That doesn’t even sound like a real story.”

              “I was able to keep only one friend out of the entire network of people that we knew.”

              “Who was that?”

              “Park.”

              “Park? Park Chanyeol?” he smiled, “He’s a good kid, strong, too.”

              “It was awkward, showing up to class and there were people there that I used to talk with all of the time, I couldn’t eat I was so nervous to even see anybody because the rumor had spread so bad that I-”

              “What was the rumor?”

              “I killed people for a living.”

              “What?” he put his utensil down and leaned in, his eyes lost in thought. “How could anyone believe _that_? No offence but your frame isn’t exactly built for killing people, you’re much too…nice for that.”

              It had made her laugh and he seemed happy at that, but she stayed her laughter and continued, “That was the issue, he had talked up such a friendship with these people in the short amount of time that he was there that he actually managed to overtake my friendship with them. I was left alone for a long time because I wasn’t friends with him at that time.

              “When did this happen?”

              “Third year. He transferred in to my college the year before.”

              Ji Soo was silent for a minute, trying to process everything that Sooji had said and he had an indignant look about him- his breathing became loud.

              “Don’t get mad.”

              “How can I not? Someone hurts a dear old friend of mine and what am I supposed to do?”

              “You can’t do anything now, it’s too late. Besides, isn’t calling me a ‘dear old friend’ too much?”

              “Dear _young_ friend, then? I could catch him for you if you describe him to me.”

              “No, I just mean we have a lot of catching up to do.”

              “That’s true.” He nodded, “Let’s finish this and head to get a coffee, okay? Then we can catch up more there.”

              “Sure.” She smiled.

 

              As much as Sooji hated to admit it, it was like they had never left each other’s sides,- they had picked up their friendship where it had left off those many years ago and it was a relief to her, but she still felt like something was different, like if someone had studied Ji Soo’s past and it was recited like a play. It was an unnatural feeling, and she couldn’t let her guard down just yet and be comfortable with him. Even if it was dark and cold outside, for the thirteenth month was nothing but, it still felt even colder.

              Entering the coffee shop, there had been someone ahead of them in line, and Sooji offered to get him a coffee since he had paid for dinner. Accepting her offer, he grabbed a seat in a corner near a window so he could watch the snow and the people trudging on the streets below them. The man in front of her had finished his order and taken his coffee from the counter, and spinning around quickly, he knocked into Sooji, spilling the drink onto her shirt. She was thankful, at least, that the coffee was cold and not hot, but it was still an inconvenience.

              “Oh, oh my,” the man’s deep voice spoke, it was a soft voice and pleasant, “I’m sorry, please excuse my clumsiness.”

              A bit too flustered to speak, he offered her napkins from the counter. Sooji had never seen a man more beautiful in her life, and she ended up staring a bit at him. Having watched the event, Ji Soo went up to Sooji before he asked if she was alright and nodding her head she gave him his answer.

              “I would like to offer you my sweater, since it must be uncomfortable to wear a wet shirt in this cold weather.” He looked down at her- he was far taller than anyone she had seen up close before- it added to his beauty and her heart began to pound. What was this sensation? Love? Lust? Strong admiration? Death? Whatever it was, Sooji didn’t quite mind it much.

              “That’s alright, I can just go home.” She stammered out as he put the sweater into her arms and ushered her towards the bathroom to change herself, his long nails gently scraping along her back and spine as he did so.

              “I’m sorry for spilling coffee on your girlfriend.” The man spoke first.

              “Oh, she’s not my girlfriend. I came over to make sure that she was okay.”

               “I can assure you it was iced, and the accident was my fault so the sweater was the least that I could do. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Lee Soohyuk.”

              “ _The Night Crawler Lord.”_ Ji Soo thought to himself and nodded with a smile.

              The man smiled in return, waiting for Ji Soo’s introduction.

              “Oh, right, I’m sorry, I’m Kim Ji Soo.” He extended his hand and Soohyuk took it. His grip was tight and firm, almost intimidating. nails were longer than the average and pointed like a claw, and it was then, too, that he had noticed in his smile were extended canines- telltale signs of a powerful, and old Night Crawler. Newer generations of Night Crawlers had shorter fangs, as was more desirable.  

              Sooji had come out of the bathroom, holding her shirt folded neatly in her hands and the man’s sweater fit loosely on her body.

              “How can I return your sweater to you?”

              “You can bring it to this address,” the man whipped out his wallet and gave her a small, iridescent card, “you don’t have to wash it, bringing it is enough.”

              “Thank you again, can I at least buy your coffee?”

              “When it was my fault, I think I should be asking you and your boyfriend, right?”

              Sooji forced a smile, she didn’t like the vibe he was giving to her, and she was beginning to put up walls.  “He’s not my- whatever, _sure_ , that would be very kind of you, sir.”

              “Ah, my name is Soohyuk, Lee Soohyuk.”

              “Mr. Soohyuk, then.”

              The man paid for their drinks, and a replacement for his own and turning around, he made sure to hand them their drinks first, and when he had his own drink in his hand, he turned carefully and walked out of the shop with a gingerly pace.

              “What a strange day.” Sooji said as the thunder became louder outside.

              “Customers,” the shop owner called, “I think it’s safest to go home, the snow might get too high, to walk safely during this dark month. I live here so it’s convenient for me, but please, don’t put yourselves in danger for a coffee.”

              “Yes, thank you.” Ji Soo nodded and together he and Sooji exited the shop.

              “The snow is getting a bit high,” Sooji commented, “good thing I don’t live too far away.”

              “Hold onto my jacket so you won’t get lost underneath the snow.” He tried to laugh and she did as she was instructed.

              “I still think it was completely unnecessary for that man to give you his sweater.”

              “I was nice of him.”

              “Night Crawlers don’t just do things like that.”

              “He was a Night Crawler?”

              “Do you really not know who he is? He was just being polite telling us who he was- he’s the Lord of the Night Crawlers.”

              “Of this Doull?”

              “Of all of them.”

              “He seemed very out of place to be a Night Crawler Lord.” She slipped in the underlying ice, and Ji Soo ditched his drink to catch her. His grip was unnecessarily strong.

              “Why aren’t the heaters working?” Ji Soo complained as they fought their way to her garage, and finally up the staircase where she lived.

              “It’s just a bit strange, I wonder why there’s just so much snow.”

              Entering her house, she kicked off her shoes and stood still for a moment.

              “Could you move forward a bit?” Ji Soo asked politely but Sooji stood still. “Sooji?”

              “There’s someone in my house!” she called out.

              “There you are!” a voice from her room called and she let her guard down when out through her doors came Park.

              “What are you doing here?”

              “Your HM let me – whoa, hey, no need for the gun, there!” Park put his hands up and Sooji turned to see Ji Soo’s arms outstretched and his concealed weapon in his hands- did he have that with him the entire time?

              “Put that down!” She freaked out, "Why do you even have a gun with you?" Ji Soo did as he was told. Turning back to Park, she snapped, “That’s not what I asked.”

              “I came looking for you since you weren’t answering my calls.”

              “Was it really that important?”

              “Yes.” He nodded.

              “So, are you going to tell me or not?” she argued and stepped forward from the entryway.

              “So,” Park questioned, “who’s the gunslinger?”

              “Ji Soo. Kim Ji Soo. We went to grade sc-”

              “Oh,” he said unenthusiastically, “it’s you.”

              “After all this time, ouch.” Ji Soo smiled and so did Park, who went over to give him a hug. “Good to see you again!”

              “You too!” Chanyeol beamed, but it was noticeably fake- both of them were and Sooji felt uncomfortable.

              “What was it that was so important, anyway?” she tried to change the atmosphere.

              “Your party is still tonight, right?”

              “Is it?” Sooji threw her head back with a groan. “I don’t want to have it anymore, not with this kind of snow. This is a stay-in day.”

              “It might be nice to gather all of your friends here on a day like this, though.” Ji Soo suggested, and his motives were uncertain.

              Sooji thought about it for a moment and Ji Soo wasn’t _wrong,_ it would be a nice day to gather around and eat together and sleep over if they wished but she wasn’t in a hosting mood anymore and she made faces as she thought about it.

              “Alright HM, send the word out that it’s still on. And it’s a bring your own alcohol invitation, please. And tell them to come through the window, it’s too much down below to risk.”

              “Yes madam.” The HM called back at her.

 

              SooJi gave Ji Soo permission to call his nearby friends and invite them as well, and he promised to invite at least one. In total, Sooji would have twelve invited guests and one-by-one, they knocked on the window and were allowed to enter and their vehicles parked themselves onto the roof of the building. With Park in the kitchen, the party began with music, good food, and friends all around.

              “What faction are we celebrating anyway?”

              “Networking?” Sooji’s answer was unconfident but accepted. She had chosen all of her friends to have a party purely on celebrating the dark month’s break.

              Everyone informally introduced themselves, without the use of a game as Jaehyung had done, and the chatter began. Sooji, however, sat in her favorite corner chair and observed. Suddenly, she remembered she was wearing the stranger’s sweater and looked down at it and held it in her hands feeling the soft knit fabric.

              “I should change out of it before I ruin it accidentally.” She thought to herself and left to go to her room, but as she passed the sofa from behind, Ji Soo’s arm, which was draped over the back of it, reached out to grab her, and pulled her back by the sweater, letting her go after she lightly slapped his wrist. Changing, she returned just as quickly as she left and went to resume her seat in the corner, but Younghyun now occupied it, and the look on his face told her that he had done it on purpose.

              “You’re in my seat.” She said to him with crossed arms.

              “Really? I don’t see your n- this is your apartment…” he pursed his lips before smiling, “If you want the chair, you’ll have to either sit on my lap or get me out yourself, because I’m staying put.”

              Overhearing the conversation behind him, Ji Soo turned his head to look behind him, and Ji Soo’s military friend and he shot him a deadly look, to which Younghyun promptly got up from his seat.

              “Boys are weird.” She stepped behind the boy to sit in her chair once more.

              “Not as weird as you.”

              “You got me there.”

              “Can I sit in _your_   lap, then?”

              “What was that?” a cold voice from behind him startled him, and he dropped his shoulders, turning around to see who it was- Taekwoon.

              “I get it, I get it,” he put his hands in the air and Taek walked away laughing at him before disappearing behind the corner.

              “Ah, Ji Soo,” Sooji called ahead of her, “I just remembered that we never put your print into the door, we should do that sooner rather than later because if you end up drinking a lot, there’s no way I’ll be able to lug you to the door to do it myself.”

              “You could always just leave him on the floor.” His friend suggested and Sooji pretended to think about it and Ji Soo’s expression remained neutral. “Let’s do it right now, then before either of us forget, or if _you_ end up drinking too much.” he stood up from his seat with a spring and walked with Sooji to where his room would be.

              “Alright so I’m supposed to put my hand on here first,” Sooji read from her PA’s screen that detailed the process, “And then you have to put your hand on the pad next, on top of mine.”

              “Like this?” JiSoo tried to reach his hand but due to the angle, it was difficult and awkward, so he scooted behind Sooji, and drew close to her, “I think this is easier, don’t you?”

              Nerves took over, but she could never show it. Over the years, Sooji has had the determination to never show emotions on her face, and in mastering that skill, made her appear calm and collected in even the most embarrassing or awkward situations. This was one time that she was grateful she had this ability, for she could feel him breathing lightly down her neck, and she wished the process could go quicker. It wasn’t the door that beeped, however, for the fire alarm sounded and she turned to the stove to see Chanyeol had lost control of the fire. Before the HM could even react properly, Taekwoon flicked his wrist towards the fire and ice formed instead, dousing the flames with water as it melted.

              Having let go of the door panel, Sooji scurried up to Park and asked him what had happened, and he gave a poor excuse that he was distracted by the conversations in the living room.

              “Only an idiot would believe that lie. I’ll let it slide for now, just don’t burn my house down, got it.” She snarled.

              “I don’t like it that he’s getting so close to you and this is his first day back.” He growled back. “How well do you even know him after all these years?”

              “What, and you think I like it?”

              “You don’t seem to be nervous or worried about how close he’s standing next to you, am I right? I could swear that I even saw a smile on both of your faces back there whispering stupid things to each other, I know what you’re up to.”

              “I’m going to kill you, you know that? You out of everybody I know should know that I’ve decided not to show my feelings on the outside.”

              “Yeah, but you weren’t shying away from it, either.” His gaze was piercing, and he was right.

              “Whoa, what’s the fight about?” Younghyun interjected, having seen the hatred forming between them.

              “It was my fault.” Ji Soo confessed suddenly- and it, again, seemed rehearsed. “I got too close to Sooji and it wasn’t appropriate. I had a little bit to drink and my judgement isn’t the best right now.” He nodded in his lie.

              Park looked over Sooji’s head at Ji Soo with more searing hatred than a roaring blaze- he knew that he was just saying an excuse to cover himself- he didn’t appear like a lightweight and he was certain that he was lying.

              “I think we should retry the do-”

              “No!” both Park and Younghyun spoke at the same time, the guests seemed not to notice the small fight going on until something in the kitchen caught fire again, and Park simply slapped his hand on top of it to douse it. One of the guests stood from his seat and slow clapped.

              “Sit down Jongdae!” someone laughed and pulled him back onto the couch- the mood was once again light and the guests continued to chatter.

              “Neither of you are in a position to argue over what I do with my life right now.” Sooji was furious and returned to the door panel, waiting for Ji Soo to do so as well and they completed the process and in no time, she was back in her corner seat.

              “Sooji can I talk to you?” Park asked her at her seat.

              She didn’t budge- didn’t even look at Park standing there- and kept the scowl on her face prominent. He knelt down next to her and put his hands on the arm of the chair, hiding his face and trying to appear cute to her, but it wouldn’t work as long as she was avoiding his gaze. Shuffling around to the front of the chair, he kept the same gesture until he saw that she was still avoiding his gaze. Standing up, he pouted and stood directly in front of her and she look to her right at the shelves against the wall, and he poked her cheek- he could see that she was trying to hide her smile and continued until it made her laugh.

              “Sooji, I really want to talk to you though, can you come into the kitchen for a moment?”

              With a huff, Sooji got off of the chair and both of them went into the kitchen. She motioned to the floor up to the ceiling and an invisible space was created by the HM, which would allow their conversation to be private and not heard by the guests nearby. Before their conversation even started, however, there came a knock at the space, and Sooji turned around and to her surprise was greeted with a wave from Hongbin.

              “What could he be doing here?” she asked and gave a polite wave and a signal for him to wait a moment. “Alright, what was it that you wanted to talk about?”


	7. CODE:  그 꽃들은 전쟁안에 담그자 곧 생기를 되찾았음 [Flowers will revive themselves when they're immersed in war.]

_“Hello, Lieutenant Ji Soo.”_

_“Sir!” Ji Soo saluted._

_“Please, be more comfortable.” The voice laughed over the video call being projected on his clearscreen. “You’re always so formal.”_

_“I still have to present myself as a Lieutenant first, especially to our commander.”_

_“Please, we’ve known each other for… quite few years already. Let’s speak comfortably with each other. Have a seat.”_

_“Yes, sir.”_

_“I’m very pleased with your progress up to now. You’ve made it so far in such a small amount of time. All good progress, too.”_

_“I couldn’t have done it without your help.” Ji Soo smiled, “If it wasn’t for your kind recommendation, I wouldn’t have made it into the academy in the first place.”_

_“Even so, it was still you that succeeded through the ranks past your colleagues. You are truly an exceptional person, especially from where you had started.”_

_“Thank you, sir.”_

_“I had a favor to ask of you, which was the purpose of this call.”_

_“Anything, sir!” Ji Soo fidgeted his fingers out of sight of the screen- it was the first time he had been nervous in a long, long time and he liked the feeling._

_“I’ve known you since you were young and I appreciate that you have stuck by my little Sooji’s side during childhood.” The man’s voice became warm and fatherly, “so I ask that you help me – help her out. I had asked someone previously- actually quite a few people previously- but it seems like they had other interests to pursue, so I’m coming to you as a second father and as the father to a long-time friend.”_

_“Thank you for your consideration, sir. I really appreciate it.” Ji Soo nodded, “However, with all-due respect, I haven’t talked to her in quite a few years, I have no idea where to find her or anything about her.”_

_“All of that information is already on your desk.” Her father smiled through the screen. “Consider this a next assignment as a Lieutenant.”_

_“Yes, sir!” Ji Soo saluted and the man laughed._

_“Then it’s all settled,” he smiled, “I’ve contacted the HM in her house to expect you as a guest. I will be covering all of the rent costs and expenses you might have.”_

_“Excuse me?”_

_“This is my daughter we’re talking about. I want nothing but the best for her. Please read up on her health conditions before you arrive to her apartment tomorrow afternoon, and read up on the people I’ve outlined there for you. There’s a lot of information, but don’t stress yourself about it.”_

_“Thank you, sir.” He said as he glanced down at the clearscreen on his desk._

_“And Ji Soo,” he interrupted with a stern voice that melted away with a smile, “relax.”_

_The connection was cut and Ji Soo’s posture slouched in the chair as he breathed out a loud sigh of relief the meeting was over. Almost immediately a knock came at his door and they were allowed in. He straightened his posture once more and appeared_

_“Ji Soo, I heard about your reassignment, the orders were given to headquarters and approved immediately.” The academy official’s hearty voice laughed, “I don’t know who you know but whoever it is, sign me up next. Anyone would kill for this kind of priority and for what- some college girl’s bodyguard? Seems like the easy life to me! Hope she’s cute for your sake!” he laughed again._

_He could only smile back as he was left alone once more to read the files he was given as well as the address to her apartment._

 

*            *            *           *            *            *            *            *

             

              “So, what are you doing in my room?” Ji Soo’s voice had a deeper tone to it and it came across as intimidating. He figured with the sound-proof screen up in the kitchen, he was safe for at least two minutes in case something broke out between him and anybody at the apartment, and now he was face-to-face with one of her friends.  He let himself go a little bit, and lowered his eyes, and allowing a crooked smirk to slither across his jaw.

 

*            *            *           *            *            *            *            *

 

 

              _“Alright,” Ji Soo spoke to himself with the clearscreen in his hand. “let’s get acquainted with some of your friends.”_

_As he ran around the room to pack his belongings and his immediately necessary items for travel, he threw the clearscreen at the wall and it set itself up on an empty space and displayed both the information and the photo as his academy HM read aloud the information of the friends that Sooji had._

_“Jung Taekwoon,” it read outloud, “he studies theater at the Ryounin School and used to be best friends with Sooji until he was pronounced dead three years ago. A product of a three-year technology advancement in the studies at the Museum of the Eyes. He is a mix of both dark and ice and the first to live through that process with relative ease and virtually no complications. He was released when his results stabilized and returned to school like nothing had changed. While he is registered as a dark, which would technically make him Noctis aligned, his records and his identifier would say otherwise- he is most definitely Lucis aligned. His accumulated debt put him in a state of unstable stress and it was paid off by the prince himself in exchange for work.”_

_Ji Soo scoffed, “Work? What kind of work? Interesting that Prince Lucis would even bother… Please, continue.”_

_“Taekwoon was originally one of the few who were created in order to protect Sooji, but it seems he has fallen prey to the enemy.”_

_“One of the few?” Ji Soo questioned while facing the clear screen, “Can you show me all of those known who were created for the same purpose?”_

_On the screen ahead of him was showed four photos and he studied their faces for a moment._

_“Which ones do I really have to look out for?”_

_“This one, sir, has apparently gotten in contact with the girl recently.”_

_“What’s his name?”_

_“Kang Younghyun,” the HM spoke about the last photo in the set while bringing the photo to the side and displaying the boy’s information, records and the like, “the newest of the bunch. He was created especially for Sooji, after a few years of studying her habits, likes and dislikes, he was carefully chosen by Noctis himself, put into R_ _ØE and then completely redone from scratch.”_

_Ji Soo studied his photo and gave a face as he sneered, “And he came up with a guy like this?”_

_“He was given a dark power. It’s not listed which of the four he was given, but it is assumed to be standard. His memory was programmed to read that he was in an accident, and that events before that time cannot be remembered. He is given memory “clues” with the help of_ _three others who were contracted. Originally four were contracted, but one now works for the Night Crawler Lord, Soohyuk, as his second in command.”-a photo of Soohyuk and his second in command appeared on the screen as the HM spoke about them-“He is taking up music as a new transfer in the Ryounin school, however, plans backfired. Sooji’s type preferences were too highly considered, and it seems the boy loves to work too much to look after her enough for the master’s initial liking. He was supposed to go in for reworking on his mind programming on a separate day, but it was found that he now works under Lucis, again, to the dismay of the team.”_

_“Does it list a reason why?”_

_“No, the reason is still unknown.”_

_“I feel like Lucis knows about Sooji.”_

_“It would appear so from this evidence, since Soohyuk worked closely with Noctis during the process of Sooji’s creation, he knows about the inner working, and since Soohyuk has been seen reporting to Lucis, it can be assumed that Lucis knows about Sooji.”_

_“Wait, what did you say about Sooji? Sooji’s creation? Wait, wait, what’s the whole purpose of me even protecting her?” he asked the HM and a new file came up, with the words ‘classified’ flashing across the top in bold, red characters._

*            *            *           *            *            *            *            *

 

              “You mean this isn’t Sooji’s room?” the voice replied. “I thought it was, my apologies. Sooji said I could rest on her bed for a little, my head doesn’t feel too well and I’m afraid I might have to go home early. Please, excuse me, then.”

              The boy wished to excuse himself past Ji Soo, but he stood firmly in the door.

              “How did you even get into this room?” Ji Soo’s voice grew darker.

              “Oh, I asked the HM. We’re good friends, Sooji and I, so the HM just let me in.”

              Ji Soo knew it was a lie and smiled to cover it up, letting him pass by him in order to return to the living room and excuse himself from the party. He left through the front door and used the roof exit to fly off with his vehicle.

              “I left that door open, didn’t I.” Ji Soo sighed at himself and closed the door.

              Turning from the room he saw a new guest that he hadn’t noticed before knocking on the sound-proof wall between the living area and the kitchen where Sooji was talking with Park. After he waved to her, Ji Soo made his way over and introduced himself.

              “Hello, I’m Kim Ji Soo.” He held out his hand, and the man put what he was holding in his opposite hand to share Ji Soo’s outstretched one.

              “Ji Soo? Lee Hongbin. I heard about you from, uh, her father.”

              “Oh?” Ji Soo gave him a look and then nodded. “ _Oh_.”

              “I’m also her doctor.” He continued to shake Ji Soo’s hand with a big smile as Ji Soo stared at the gift in his other hand: a small ornate box and a small bouquet of flowers.

              “Doctor?” he asked and Hongbin caught his gaze at the gifts.

              “Oh, this?” Hongbin pulled away from the handshake with a slight laugh- he was embarrassed, “No, this is a gift from some friends of ours and, well, the flowers are from me, but it was just a passing thought since I came here uninvited. I had no idea something was going on today.”

              “It’s alright, it’s a few friends of hers, but now that you mention it, I don’t recall seeing you in the database that I was sent.”

              “If you have any questions feel free to ask, I would be more than happy to answer.”

              “You sound like a man who has something worth hiding.” Ji Soo’s eyes lowered.

              “Don’t we all?” the corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk.

              Their conversation was brought to a halt when the guests chimed in a chorus of ‘oohs’ and their attention went quickly from the guests to Sooji and Park in the soundproof space. Sooji appeared angry, and as entertainment, the guests were making up possible dialogues that the two were having.

             

              “Park you have no say in what I do with my life or who I hang out with or even who is my roommate.” Sooji was visibly agitated but her words remained calm.

              “Do you know how angry that makes me?” he was raising his voice at her.

              “You’ve told me a lot but it doesn’t make sense. It’s not like you’re my boyfriend or anything, you really don’t have to worry about it.”

              “But Sooji, listen to me, why do you think I keep asking you to be my girlfriend? Don’t you think I care about you? I know you’re not dumb enough to not understand that, why can’t you just accept me?”

              “Of course I know you care about me but that’s what friends do. And that’s what we are- friends! You’re always asking me to be your girlfriend but have you asked me what I want? What I’m looking for in a boyfriend? Or if I even want one in the first place?”

              “Sooji listen, with me you don’t have to worry about anything-”

              “No, Park, listen to _me_ for a minute, maybe it was my fault for overstepping my bounds and being too nice but maybe I should stop.”

              “You’re impossible, you know that?” Park huffed.

              “Stop being jealous.” Her voice darkened as she looked directly into his eyes, and he was taken back for a moment.

 

 

              “So those flowers are just for visiting? You guys aren’t like… dating or anything?” Ji Soo asked while keeping his focus on Sooji and Park.

              “Oh, not a chance. I’m two thousand years old, who would want to date an old guy like me.” Hongbin kept his focus on the two in the sound-proofed room as well.

              “I mean, if you look like that at two thousand years old I can’t see many girls saying no.” Ji Soo shrugged, “Just saying.”

              “Thanks for the compliment but Sooji isn’t my type.” He shook his head. “She’s too dangerous.”

              “More for me.” A third voice called beside them and both of them looked over to their lefts to see Younghyun standing beside them with his arms crossed.

              “You’re not my type, _either_.” Hongbin retorted.

              “I’m too sober for this.” Ji Soo sighed.

 

 

              “That’s why I’m not jealous.” Park retorted, but Sooji didn’t believe his words as much as she would have liked.

              “We should cut this conversation here, anyway, my guests are probably making a show of this.”

              The barrier disappeared and she apologized to her guests who laughed and said it was a fun game to them and that they could continue if needed.

              “Hongbin, how nice it is to see you. What brings you here?” Sooji smiled and turned her attention to him immediately, so that Park wouldn’t have a chance to say anything further.

              “I remembered that Heget had asked me to bring this to you when I visited them the other day.”

              “You visited her?”

              “The day you went to the hospital.” He nodded. “The flowers are from me, I saw them on my way here and I thought to get them since I was an uninvited guest.”

              “That’s nice of you.” She smiled pleasantly as she took them. “Should I open it now?”

              Opening it, Sooji gasped- it was a pendant.

              “Look how pretty, oh!” she gasped. “It must have taken them a long time to save up for this.”

              “You’re right, it looks expensive.” Hongbin nodded.

              “Can you put this on for me?” she turned around and held the necklace up behind her and both Ji Soo and Hongbin reached for it at the same time, and looking at each other Ji Soo wouldn’t let up and Hongbin allowed him to do it.

              “I wonder what this was for, she wouldn’t just- oh it must have been for my birthday.”

              “It’s your birthday?” Jongdae stood up from the couch, his voice cracking- had he been listening in the entire time?

              “No, it was last month.” she laughed.

              “It _was_ your birthday?” he corrected.

              “Well it was school and al-”

              “Noexcuses, we’recelebratingrightnow!” he quickly exclaimed and he pulled out his wallet.

              “No, that’s not necessary.” She laughed.

              “You guys, shouldn’t we celebrate dear Sooji’s birthday?” Jongdae hyped the rest of the room and they agreed- anything to continue the party feeling.

              They divided the cost of extra alcohol and assigned someone to fetch it from any open store they could, and had their HM prepare different foods for the occasion. Music was turned up, and the party went into full swing.

 

 

              The last phrase Sooji remembered hearing before it went black was, “Here, drink this.” When she woke up it was quiet in the apartment, and she could identify a few sleeping bodies on the couch and the floor. The only light came from the kitchen where a few were talking quietly. She rubbed her eyes to get a better look and saw that it was Park, Ji Soo, Hongbin, and Younghyun.

              “What a sight,” she mumbled with a sleepy smile, “I have four pretty boys in my kitchen.” Giggling to herself, she struggled to get up and let herself sit for a moment more, but the small noise caught their attention.

              Younghyun had gotten up from his seat at the counter and went to Sooji, kneeling beside her with a soft smile.

              “Are you awake? How do you feel?”

              “More like, what do you remember?” Hongbin chimed in with a cheeky smile.

              Sooji glared at him and thought for a moment- what had happened? It was unlike her to get drunk enough to forget things- it was unlike her to even get drunk in the first place.

              “Do you remember?”

              Sooji shook her head.

              “Why are you crying?” Younghyun patted her head with a light chuckle.

              “Overactive eye ducts.” Sooji said with a huff.

              “Why don’t we get you some water and then we can help you remember what happened.”

              “Is it bad?” she groaned as she tried to get up once more, but failed.

              “Do you need my help?”

              “No, I’m just tired.” She whined and used whatever energy she had left to hoist herself up quickly, and tried not to fall over. Younghyun caught her arm.

              Sitting on the stool he had previously occupied, she slumped herself over the counter and took the glass of water that the HM created for her on the surface.

              “So, what happened?”

              “You were crazy.” Younghyun started and gave a quick glance to the other boys. “It started off with you dancing on the coffee table.”

              “You shape shifted into a few other people, too.”

              “I shapeshifted?” she gasped as she took a sip.

              “The real highlight was that you gave Park a kiss.” Hongbin interjected.

              Sooji gasped loudly and put her hand over her mouth.

              “It was a good kiss.” Chanyeol blushed and then frowned, “But then you kissed Ji Soo.”

              Ji Soo spat his drink a bit and recovered with, “I thought we weren’t going to mention that.”

              “No, we weren’t going to mention her kissing Younghyun after that.”

              Sooji looked like she wanted to curl up and fade away out of existence- she grew pale and her expression hadn’t changed a bit.

              “You too?” she mouthed to Hongbin and to her relief he shook his head.

              “You tried taking off my shirt, though.” He looked at her with a straight face.

              “I put an end to _that_ quickly.” Park nodded with an attitude.

              Sooji grabbed her face in disbelief.

              “The best part, though,” Hongbin  leaned over the counter towards her, “was that you confessed your love to all of us.”

              “Oh my God what did I say?” Sooji’s eye widened and she looked towards all of the boys, who each shrugged at her. “Was it something like, ‘you guys can make up a better story than that?’.”

              Her expression dropped into a serious face with glaring eyes, and she looked at them all in their eyes one-by-one who couldn’t help but muffle their bursting laughter.

              “You know in the beginning you had me worried a little bit. The effect wore off at kissing Park.”

              Park stopped laughing.

              “Why don’t you want to date me?” Park pitied himself and threw himself onto the counter, giving her a sad expression.

              “We had this discussion multiple times before and I’m not going to repeat myself again.” She sighed, “But on a side note, what really did happen?”

              “Jongdae mixed you this bomb of a drink and you took one sip and you were out.” Hongbin said with a surprised face. “I took one sip and _I_ almost went out.”

              “Mr. I-never-get-drunk almost passed out? I’d love to see what that would have been like.”

              “Curse my regeneration ability.” He said sarcastically.

              “I really wanna go to sleep, what time is it?”

              “Five in the morning.” Park scoffed as he sipped on his coffee.

              Sooji groaned and went to her room, and after retreating to the bathroom and taking a quick shower, she returned to her room and almost didn’t make it to the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

              The HM pulled the covers out from under her and covered her with them, tucking the fabric underneath the pillow as she usually did to herself before she went to bed. Six robotic arms simultaneously fluffed her pillow, tucked the fabric underneath the fluffed pillow, rearranged the covers and her body to be in the most comfortable position before they retracted back into the ceiling.

              In the morning, everyone had gone, and her HM had cleaned the house neatly back to its original cleanliness. He even had taken the books out for her once more and set them on the table.

              “Good morning, Sooji.” It called to her, “Shall I warm up a tea for you? Or perhaps a coffee? And what would you like for breakfast?”

              It was still as dark as night outside despite that it was almost noon. She sighed and went to the bathroom to wash her face.

              “I think I recognize that kind of an answer- I’ll whip up your favorite things. And Sooji-”

              “What?” Sooji returned to the living room and sat at the couch feeling miserable and dreary.

              “Your clothes are a bit, hm, how can I say-”

              “Ah, good morning, sir.” The HM spoke and Sooji could hear Ji Soo coming out of his room and briskly walked into the bathroom, finishing quickly thereafter and dressing himself in a most hasty manner.

              “A bit what?” she asked, not paying attention to what the HM was saying to her.

              Ji Soo came out of his room and seemed too alert for someone who had just woken up.

              “HM made something for you, too.” She managed a smile.

              “Thank y..ou.” His voice trailed off as sat at the counter where a plate was made for him and stared at it hard. “What’s on the agenda for to-day?”

              “Read those books, I should honestly just return them. I don’t think I can find anything I’m looking for.”

              “I’ll help you for today, but if you could put on more than sleeping boxers and a bra, I think it would be easier to work together.”

              Sooji looked down at herself and her face grew red. Her HM had already been holding out a large sweater for her to dress herself in and he took it and quickly threw it on, running to her room afterwards. Ji Soo snorted a breathy laugh to himself as he began to eat his meal.

              “Can we forget that ever happened?”

              “Forget what happened? Good morning, by the way. HM made something for you.” He pointed with his utensil at her dish, “Eat it before it gets lukewarm.”

              “I’m just used to having both a girl roommate and living by myself for a little.”

              “Just so you know, I’m not really phased by that kind of thing. But I’m also not enamored by it, I’m here to do a job, but please try not to make my job harder.”

              “A _job_?”

              “Your dad asked me to take care of you and I consider that a very important job.” He stole a glance at her, and she hadn’t made his job any easier wearing a short top and shorts- barely an upgrade from what she had worn before.

              Sooji didn’t say anything beyond that, and as soon as she had finished her meal she sat at the living room table.

              “If you’re mad at me for saying that it’s a job then I’m sorry but that’s what it is.”

              “I’m not mad at you, I’m kind of annoyed at the fact that my father thinks I need a babysitter.”

              Ji Soo choked out his words halfway through his drink. “Babysitter?”

              “Isn’t that what you are by definition? You’re taking care of someone younger than you after commissioned by the parents while they’re away and getting paid for it- that’s a babysitter.”

              Ji Soo was silent.

              “Hey Bomo-” Sooji started and tried to contain her laughter, “can you read me a story?”

              Ji Soo frowned as he got up from the counter chair and turned around to face her in the living room. She was reading with a smile and he watched her for a moment before taking a seat on the other side of the table and grabbing the first book in front of him.

              “I can’t believe books still exist. Should we be touching them with our hands, though? They won’t fall apart or anything, will they?”

              “Nah, I’m sure it’s fine.” She shrugged without looking up.

              “Remind me again what you’re looking for?”

              “Anything interesting.”

              “Can you narrow the playing field a little?”

              “Let’s start with dormant powers, that’s my main focus.”

              It was silent save for the low hum of electronic-sounding music the HM had put on for its own entertainment. As much of a robot it was, Sooji had found that her HM behaved more personal than other HMs she had seen in the houses of other friends. It had a sense of humor, emotions, and reason- others were simply the standard factory version. He definitely wasn’t normal and she enjoyed it that way, and in fact, her HM had also picked up a book and began scanning and turning pages.

              “There’s a small piece on dormant powers here, but then it cuts off. It’s clearly missing a couple of pages, you can see the rips.”

              “What?” Sooji looked up at the book.

              “Ah, yes!” the HM interrupted and an extra mechanical arm came down from the ceiling holding three neatly torn pages in its digits. “Taekwoon had given these to the building HM, who transferred them to me. He had taken them but it appears he gave them back out of his own free will. I can make a fix to this book for you, it will take approximately one minute and thirty-seven seconds to complete.”

              “Please!” Sooji grinned.

              “I did catch him in my room last night.”

              “I wonder what the reason was? It doesn’t seem like him to do something like that. Especially ripping pages out of a book- it just doesn’t seem right.”

              “I can’t imagine.” Ji Soo shook his head and thought about Taekwoon’s file that he had read, but decided to keep it to himself for now. “What should we prepare for lunch?”

              “You just ate and you’re thinking about eating again?”

              “I love eating almost as much as I love the Special Forces.”

              “Why don’t you make something for us tonight, _Bomo_.”

              “Oh, _please_ , I say one thing about babysitting and you start calling me your nanny.”

              “Well, it’s not untrue.” Sooji smiled, it was the most _Ghommon_ thing he had said since his arrival.

              “I don’t exactly know how to cook, though.”

              “That’s right…” Sooji sighed, “it’s fine. I can do it or HM if he wants to.”

              The book was returned to Ji Soo and he began to read it aloud to Sooji:

              “Dormant powers are … pr-pro- ah, prevalent in every realm, that being the… ni- twelve realms of the Golden Chil- _Golden Children?”_ Ji Soo questioned.

              “Sir, if I may interject,” the HM spoke, “Golden Children is the old-world name for the Engels, after it was switched from Engel to Golden Children before that by the second-world. It was later switched back to their original Engel.”

              “Make up your mind.” Sooji muttered.

              “Anyway,” Ji Soo continued and skimmed the pages, “dormant powers can be… active? Ah, activ _ated_ through several means including… fright, fighting, and … pro- _ah_ , practice. It has been found that night- dark powers have the most dormant powers because they are more active during the night hours and during the thirteenth month of night.”

              “Makes sense.”

              “I’m skimming through this as best I can because whoever originally wrote this used some terms that I’m not familiar with _at all_. I took courses in the old-world language but this is just … nonsense, really. It has some examples of bringing out dormant powers but nothing specific to shapeshifting- oh, _except_ ~” his words had flair to them, “Shapeshifters hold a … a what? Something about a secret piece of their powers… will remain dominant- dormant until activated. The _steps_ to activation are written out … by account of _who?_ Umbra? During the thirteenth re-reigning year.”

              Ji Soo was reading to himself a bit the passages further and Sooji grew impatient.

              “Are you going to read it or not?”

              “I think you should read it instead.” His voice sounded distant and he turned the book around and pointed to the paragraph he was reading. “I can’t seem to translate it well.”

              Picking up the book she read it with confidence, but as she read her smirk dropped, and her fingers grew week- dropping the book onto the table.

              “What the heck kind of steps are these?!” her voice shook. She was angry.


	8. CODE: BLACKOUT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ** did not edit

              “You did _what_?” the man’s voice yelled.

              “I spilled coffee on her.” He, however, was calm and collected- almost bored.

              “On purpose?” his blood was boiling.

              He shrugged.

              “Don’t shrug at me, Soohyuk, I’m still in charge here.”

              “Technically we’re _equals_ , so be careful how you speak to me.” Soohyuk’s words were cold and condescending.

              “I told you not to hurt her, though.” Whining like a child, he suddenly became timid, but Soohyuk wasn’t buying into his ruse.

              “It was iced and I gave her my sweater.”

              The man sighed and played with some of his long white hair, gently pulling at it to comfort himself.

              “She’s going to return the sweater to me at my apartment.”

              He stopped playing with his hair looked up- Soohyuk nodded.

              “I thought quickly, and it was the first thing I could think of. It was the only way I could possibly get her alone from her new bodyguard.”

              “B _odyguard_?”

              “His name is Kim Ji Soo. My second met him at a house party thrown by Sooji, and we were able to run some background information on him after collecting a blood sample.”

              “And?”

              “Special forces. He was discharged and taking a vacation staying at her house because they were close friends during childhood.”

              “That doesn’t make any sense- what was he discharged for?”

              “We can’t find the discharge report, but moving in was suggested by her father.”

              The man’s expression soured at the realization and he put his face into his hands and thought for a moment. “I need you to invite her to Monday’s dinner.”

              “Excuse me?” Soohyuk’s eyes widened.

              “I want to meet her myself formally. I think I scared her at the library the other day.” Lucis’ tone was more gleeful than before and Soohyuk could only nod and he excused himself from the office afterwards.

 

              “What am I going to do?” Soohyuk fell back onto the couch in his apartment and soon after his PA rang that he was receiving an incoming voice call. “I swear if this is Lucis again, I’ll-” He cut himself short when he saw it was his second. “Dowoon, I was just thinking about you.” Soohyuk spoke.

              “Thank you, sir.” His accented voice was music to his master’s ears.

              “What’s the reason for this call?”

              “Last night after the party, I was able to communicate with Younghyun.”

              “Any new information?”

              “Quite a bit.”

 

*            *            *           *            *            *            *            *

             

 

              Sooji had put her head in her hands for over a half hour, ranting about the steps the book had talked about.

              “I cannot believe these are the steps. Who wrote this, a twelve-year-old?” she argued in frustration.

              According to the book, the steps were as follows (after spending a lot of time deciphering):

  1. > Enter the land of Eyeless

  2. > Once you enter, head through the door at the left.

  3. > You might encounter some Larks, so defeat those if you can, if not return when you can. Move forward once the task is complete.

  4. > Defeat the knight standing in the way. Be wary if it carries a large shield. Bombs and exploding powers work the best. Ignore the wall on the right.

  5. > Go through the door on the left. If it is locked, return when you have a key.

  6. > Once the door is unlocked, go through the door on the right.

  7. > Don’t pop the bubble in the room. Proceed forward into the next room.

  8. > Inside this last room is a plant with four heads. Kill the plant with whatever means necessary. If it eats you, you’re out of luck.

  9. > Once you defeat the plant, lift up the pot and underneath are the instructions for how to obtain your new power.




              “This is a chase to get more instructions. I bet it still leads nowhere.” Sooji shook her head in disgust.

              “I’m sorry that it lead to nothing.” Ji Soo took the book back from her.

              “This is such nonsense.” Sooji shook her head. “Let’s keep reading.”

             

              It took them both two days’ worth of constant reading in order to give up, and even with the HM scanning pages of other books they turned up nothing.

              “This was completely useless.” She sighed as she got up and went to her room, “Izzy,” she called out, “message Minseok to return the books.”

              “Are you getting dressed?”

              “Yes?”

              “Where are you going?”

              “I’m going to get ready to give him the books back- he sees me like this and he’ll think that I’m interested in him.”

              She returned in an outfit that Ji Soo wouldn’t have exactly described as ‘I’m uninterested’, but decided to keep his thoughts to himself, and within the half hour Minseok was at her door and was allowed in. The three of them loaded the books into his vehicle and returned to her apartment to relax a little.

              “I hope you don’t mind,” Ji Soo held up a book in his hand, “I’m going to keep one of the books with me. I’ll personally return it to the library.”

              Minseok seemed uninterested in what Ji Soo had to say and shrugged indifferently.

              “How do you two know each other, anyway?” he asked, his voice was as haughty as ever as he looked Ji Soo up and down. Despite Minseok’s short height in comparison to Ji Soo, he wasn’t intimidated by him in the least.

              “We’re old friends.” Ji Soo spoke unusually calmly- his eyes never left Minseok, however.

              “I’m sure you are, but even old friends don’t stay over each other’s houses.”

              “Are you two going to fight this entire time?”

              “Where are you going?” Ji Soo asked.

              “I have to go return this,” Sooji held up a small bag, “I borrowed someone’s sweater, and I almost forgot about it.”

              “I should go with you.” Ji Soo spoke firmly but Sooji shook her head.

              “You guys can stay here it won’t take me long at all, just don’t strangle each other and don’t break anything in the house.”

              “Yeah, sure.” They each mumbled and she quickly headed out the door, where a driver was waiting for her at the bottom of her apartment stairs.

 

              The doorbell rang and immediately the door turned transparent on Soohyuk’s side. Seeing Sooji on the other side of the door was the last thing Soohyuk had expected and he jumped from his seat and mentally prepared himself, running to his room to change his clothes; his comfort clothes, he thought, wouldn’t be taken seriously.

              The doorbell had rung once more and Soohyuk ran to the door, but opened it casually, as if he hadn’t rushed his way there.

              “I’m sorry it took me so long to open the door,” he caught her as she began to turn away, “I was at the other end of the house.”

              “Oh,” her smile was pleasant and she held out a bag from her hand towards him, “I just came to return the sweater that you had leant to me.”

              “Thank you.” He took it and looked inside, seeing a small card accompanying the item, “Why don’t you have at least something to drink since you probably came such a long way just for this.”

              Sooji thought for a moment and shook her head, “No, that’s alright, I’m expected back home.”

              “Then, another time, perhaps.” He offered and Sooji only smiled before turning around and proceeding down the hallway once more.

              Throwing the bag onto his couch, he thought for a moment as he prepared himself a cup of tea. Having no HM for a few thousand years, he had grown accustomed to life on his own.

              He received a call and his PA projected the image in front of him as he stood at his counter. It was Lucis:

              “Soohyuk,” his voice was once again intimidatingly cold, “it’s half past the hour and you’re still not at dinner.”

              “Am I supposed to kidnap someone to bring to your meal? Things like that take time, besides, you hardly gave me enough of a notice to bring her over without having to do so.”

              “I don’t _have_ time, Soohyuk, perhaps you have forgotten why I asked you in the first place. It won’t do either of us good to argue about it-”

              “-I’m not the one arguing.” Soohyuk interrupted while he glared his teeth.

              “Don’t glare your teeth at me, I’ve sent you a new assignment, but maybe I should add getting new manners to that list. Get going on it, regardless, because this could be far more of an advantage if it works out.”

              “I’ll take a look.”

              “And Soohyuk,” Lucis spoke, causing the Night Crawler Lord to look up with only his eyes, “be nice to this one.”

              The video message was cut.

 

              Sooji arrived in her apartment safely, and found that Minseok was still lounging on her sofa.

              “You’re back.” He spoke warmly, “Have a nice visit to your boyfriend’s house?”

              “I have no idea who that man is, let alone him being my boyfriend.”

              “Glad to know I’m still the only one in your life.” He got up from the couch with a grin.

              “I do live with a man now.”

              “Ugh! I knew it!” his tone was brash. “Why don’t you come live with me instead?”

              “Both you and Park, I don’t get it.” She shook her head.

              “How is the volcano-boy recently?”

              “I don’t actually know, he hasn’t called in a few days.”

              “Musta really broke his heart this time. That’s what happens when it’s made of lava- it hardens over time. Ice, however, is always hard at first but then it melts. Keep that in mind.” He winked at her as he passed by to exit the apartment.

             

              “Ma’am,” the HM called, “you have another scheduled friend’s meeting today, do you still wish to attend?”

              “Goodness, you’re formal.”

              “Just trying to do my job.” She could practically hear the smile in this metallic voice.

              “You’re trying to impress our guest.” She smirked.

              “He’s a high-ranking military official, of course I’d want to impress him.” He retorted feistily, “But at least I’m not infatuated with him.”

              “Are you talking about me?”

              “No, I’m talking about Minseok- of course I’m talking about you.”

              “I mean, I wouldn’t exactly put that past me, either.”

              “Your heartrate elevates whenever you’re around our new guest, and your temperature rises slightly as well- you can’t ignore the fact that you like him even a little bit.”

              “You try living with someone who looks like that. Besides I’m sure it’ll mull over once I get used to it.”

              “You’re forgetting that both of us live in the same house.” The HM called back.

              “Where is he, anyway?”

              “He’s in his room, don’t worry I’ve soundproofed it anyway.”

              “Wait, why?”

              “He’s making some kind of a business call and wants privacy.”

              “This is my house,” she whispered, “can’t you tell me what’s going on in there?”

              “Why are you whispering it’s not like he can hear you anyway! Besides, I’m not allowed to tell you. If it’s confidential I have been programmed to follow those orders.”

              Sooji went to his room and knocked on the door, unable to use the handprint pass to enter whenever she wanted anymore.

              “Yes?” he opened the door with a smile.

              “I’m going to another friend’s house party if you wanted to come.”

              “Is it a boy’s party?”

              “Yep.”

              “Then I’m coming.” He nodded. “Give me a moment to wrap up my call and I’ll be right out.”

              “Take your time.” She offered and the door shut again.

              “You should change your outfit.” The HM spoke while a robotic arm lifted hers by the sleeve. “I’m not letting any child of mine leave the house looking like this, especially with the guest list that I was given.”

              “Then what do you suggest?” she asked as she walked to her closet.

              Out came a short black dress and Sooji crossed her arms, shaking her head.

              “No way.”

              Another dress came and she shook her head once more.

              “It’s cold outside, I’m going in exactly what I’m in.”

              “I will lock the main door if you attempt to leave like that.” The HM retorted.

              “Then pick me something that isn’t so short and that isn’t low cut, _either_.”

              HM chose for her another dress, still a bit on the short side, but with a high collar. She reluctantly obliged and after getting help with her shoes, she grabbed the bag that was prepared for her and left her room.

              “You’re going in that?” Ji Soo looked at her with an arched eyebrow.

              “It wasn’t my idea, but we should go before HM changes his mind.”

              “HM chose this for me as well,” he faked a smile, “it said we match.” His smile faded and grew serious for a moment- neither of them knew what the HM was up to, but left the house in a hurry before it decided on something else.

              “I haven’t been to a party like this in so long.” Ji Soo looked at Sooji during their flight. She was busy looking out the window and didn’t respond to him.

              “Are you mad that I’m coming?”

              “No,” she turned to him, “sorry I was thinking.”

              “About what?”

              “My powers. I want to learn more about them.” She flashed him a smile- she was faking it for him.

 

              They arrived at Jae’s house once more and Sooji’s eyebrows twitched.

              “Something wrong?” Ji Soo questioned.

              “I wonder if this was a mistake or if he’s really having a second party.” She asked as they were elevated to his floor.

              Arriving, she pressed the doorbell and waited a moment before the HM requested her ID badge and it let her in, but held up Ji Soo at the door.

              “Oh, is he your guest?” Younghyun asked her as he greeted her at the door. “HM he’s allowed in.”

              “Thank you.”

              “Younghyun, this is Ji Soo.”

              “Ah, nice to meet you.” They shook hands firmly. “Please, come in and relax. It’s my turn for a party today.”

              It was a different set of people and Sooji politely bowed as they turned to greet her and she introduced herself.

              “Oh, is that your boyfriend?” someone asked, “You two are dressed alike- it must be a couple look.”

              “No,” her face grew red, “he’s uh-”

              “-her bodyguard, Kim Ji Soo.” He spoke ahead of her. “She doesn’t like to explain it because she gets a little flustered.”

              “A bodyguard? Is it because of what happened last time?” Jaehyung called from behind a wall, presumably where his bedroom was.

              “What happened last time?” Ji Soo leaned over to Sooji and whispered.

              “Nothing, Park overreacted.”

              He snorted a quick laugh and the two intermingled with the other guests.

              “That’s right, I work with the electrical company.” The boy spoke to Sooji, “We’re going to be doing some routine maintenance today, nothing haphazard, but the power might go out for an hour. Everyone has been advised so it isn’t unexpected, either.”

              “I never got a message.”

              “Perhaps your home HM received it in your stead and since you were coming to the party today, didn’t want to bother you with it.” He smiled. Sooji liked him.

              “Let’s have a round of drinks!” Younghyun called, “Before the power goes out, that way we can play a fun little game in the dark.”

              While everyone was carrying on, Ji Soo received a message from Noctis, and excused himself from his current conversation to read it.

              “About the power outage today… just make sure that Sooji is safe.” The message read and he put his PA back on his shoulder afterwards.

             

              “So why do they have to turn the power off?” Sooji asked, “They’ve never done this before, right?”

              “I’m not entirely sure myself,” his smile was fading a bit as he struggled to give her an answer, “but I think some of the machines have to be switched out because they’re old.”

              “That would make sense.” She smiled.

              “Let’s drink one, shall we?” he held up a shot glass that was full, having another for himself in his other hand and she took the one, thanking him.

              She turned away from him as she drank out of respect and the shot stung her throat- he made a face as well.

              “Having fun, Sooji?” Younghyun put his arm around both of their shoulders and smiled. “Don’t you know Wooyoung is my favorite?”

              Sooji smiled at him.

              “Hey, Woohyung-”

              “-Wooyoung-” he corrected.

              “Woo _young_ ,” Younghyun fixed himself, “we should write some music together sometime. _Fuck_ , Wooyoung, I… _fuck_ ….”

              “You curse a lot when you’re drunk.” Wooyoung said as he glanced over at his friend who had been drinking.

              “I’ll wait for you to come make music with me, then.” He looked slyly at him and then turned to Sooji, “Hey!” Younghyun said as he got close to her, “Ditch your bodyguard sometime, okay? You look… real.. good today, Sooji, _damn_.”

              “Thank you.” She nodded with a bright smile. Even if he had been drinking, nobody else had commented on her appearance and she felt a little at ease.

              It was a few moments later that the power had been cut without warning and everyone grew silent. Everyone had their PA give off light, and they sat around as the PA gathered in a cluster in the center of the table.

              Ji Soo could see that Wooyoung had a troubled look on his face and asked him what the matter was.

              “It’s ahead of schedule by an hour.” He looked up, “It really doesn’t mean anything except it would be extremely unprofessional to do it early- it inconveniences people.”

              “HM-“ Jaehyung called out but it was unresponsive. “HM?” he waited a moment more before turning, “Wooyoung, don’t the HM run on a separate power grid?”

              “They should.” He nodded. “We weren’t planning on cutting the power grids connecting them, either- it could be in conservative power mode.”

              “Alright,” he shrugged, “I’m going to go get something to eat then and bring it back- do you guys want anything in particular?”

              “Why don’t we all go out and see what the city is like at night?”

              “Is Younghyun sobering up?” someone joked and he nodded that he was fine.

 

              The small group of seven head out of the apartment and the world around them was eerily quiet. Even if it was the thirteenth month, the absence of city lights- and the glow of the red emergency lights at every corner gave the city an eerie feeling. Sooji could feel something in the air and her heart began to beat quickly and held onto Ji Soo for support.

              “Are you okay? No need to be paranoid.”

              “I can sense someone else is out there.” She looked at him.

              “This must be what Night Crawler dreams are made of.” Someone commented as they walked down the street.

              During the power outage, hovercraft were not allowed to operate due to the danger it presents even if they did have headlights- everyone was reduced to walking on their own with their PA lighting the way ahead of them. 

              As they walked, Sooji gripped Ji Soo tightly and he paused, having felt what she did and it caused the group to pause as well. He turned around, speaking into the void, “Don’t hide.”

              “Boy, you’re good.” A deep voice called back and into the light that her PA emit stepped forward someone she didn’t recognize.

              “Why were you following us?”  

              “Dowoon!” Younghyun called out and greeted the friend- Jae was right behind him to greet him.

              “We’ve met before.” Dowoon smiled at Sooji.

She smiled, “You have a very strong feeling about you, you know.” She spoke to him. “I never knew you were a Night Crawler.”

              His eyes fixated on her and he just smiled, “I’m sorry for startling you.”

              “Let’s all go together!” Younghyun cried out as he skipped back into formation with the group and they walked on.

 

              “Halt!” a voice called and a bright light was shown at them- it was an officer. “What are you all doing walking around, don’t you know everything is closed?”

              “We were heading out to eat something, for sure someone is still open.” Wooyoung explained.

              “Return to your homes immediately.” He spoke and Sooji received a call from her HM, and her PA transformed into a headset so she could listen to the message privately while the officer spoke to the group.

              “S-Sooji…” the message was glitchy and she listened carefully, “c--- home. I --peat --- do-t c-ome home. G- -o Hon—in’s -o-pital.”

              “You guys don’t have to cover for me,” Sooji spoke up, “They were escorting me to the hospital because I was scared of going by myself, and it accidentally turned into a group trip.”

              “Take one of your friends with you, but the rest must return to your homes immediately.”

              Sooji thanked Younghyun for his time and left the group while holding onto Ji Soo.

              “What’s that all about?”

              “My HM told me not to come home just now, I received a message from him. He told me to go to Hongbin’s hospital. I’m not sure why but I trust my HM more than I trust anyone else.”

              Ji Soo thought about the message he had received from Noctis and agreed that it would be a good idea to go to the hospital as quickly as they could manage, however, both of them knew it would take a long time to get there and as they carried on they tried to find a solution.

              _“I could try to transform into something that flies or something that runs fast.”_ She pondered, but was worried if Ji Soo knew about her abilities and kept her thoughts to herself.

              “The power shouldn’t have gone out for this long.” Ji Soo’s voice was stern and his grip on Sooji grew tighter. “The notice said it would only last an hour.”

              An emergency vehicle could be heard down the street and it came towards them, stopping just beyond where they walked.

              “Sooji!” called a voice she recognized and turning around saw that it was Hongbin. “Why don’t you come with me? I was looking for you.”

              “Any reason why my HM told me to come with you?” she asked as they sped off in the vehicle.

              “I thought vehicles weren’t permitted during this period.”

              “Emergency vehicles only.” He explained, “Ah, I think your HM is just worried about you since you weren’t at home. He contacted me as well and I suggested that you stay at the hospital. We have some power there anyway.” He was proud of the fact.

              “Thank you.”

              “Nice to see you again, Ji Soo.” Hongbin nodded and Ji Soo returned the gesture.

              Upon arriving at the hospital, they saw that it had minimal power, enough for important machines and simple room lights.

              “You can stay in one of our vacant rooms until the power returns. If you’re hungry, however, I can take you to the cafeteria.”

              Coyly, Sooji smiled, “Actually, yes, we haven’t eaten yet tonight.”

              As they ate, they chattered until they heard a large sound, and the hospital shook a bit before even the emergency lights went out. Everyone froze as their PA lit up one by one. Those with the power of light, emitted as they could and helped guide people up the stairs.

              The three of them went to the roof of the building out of curiosity and while the city was dark, one section seemed to burn a bright red blaze- the electrical facility was on fire.

              “I have to go.” Hongbin spoke quickly and ran off down the elevator once more. 


	9. CODE: SYMPATHY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ⚠ CHAPTER WARNING : may contain some unsettling graphic content, please be advised ⚠

              “I’m coming with you!” Ji Soo yelled as he sprinted after Hongbin down the flights of stairs, leaving Soo Ji behind, who, on her own accord, wasn’t about to let herself be left alone by those two.

              “If you’re coming, I can’t take care of you if something happens to you!” Hongbin called as he jumped into a medical hover vehicle.

              “I’m trained for this!” Ji Soo called as he hopped into the other seat.

              “I wasn’t talking about you.” He gestured to Sooji, who was climbing into the back.

              They weren’t the only group of healers running to the scene, but all stopped when they came upon the inferno that was the electrical company. It was a horror for anybody to see, and while outwardly Hongbin and Ji Soo didn’t show much emotion, Sooji wasn’t as prepared for what she was witnessing. The fireball blazed bright, and an electrical storm could be seen darting in and out of the smoke clouds it was producing.

              Even with the size of the explosion, they wondered why emergency teams weren’t there yet. 

              “Why is nobody here?” Hongbin called as he exited the vehicle, but even taking one step closer to the building he froze.

              From where he stood he found his answer: there _had_ been Nameless who used both fire and water at the scene before they arrived, but when the water users used their powers, the electricity had shocked their bodies, and burned them alive. Their bodies were too far gone to be helped when Hongbin inspected them. When those who could use fire had come to try and save those burning inside, they were shocked by the wild currents running through the water and were unable to enter the building safely. Ji Soo ran from behind Hongbin who grabbed his shirt and pulled him back, stopping him where he stood.

              “What do we do we can’t go in there?” Ji Soo turned towards Hongbin as he was deep in thought.

              “I can.” Hongbin nodded, “I can go in. I have to go in- this is my duty.”

              Taking one step into the puddle, Hongbin wailed but calmed himself down, using his powers to heal himself constantly.

              “Your duty doesn’t involve killing yourself.” Ji Soo argued.

              “I can’t die.” Hongbin said before he began walking towards the still-burning building but Ji Soo grabbed his arm.

              “I would never let anyone play hero in this kind of dangerous situation.”

              “You have to stay here and guard Sooji,” Hongbin argued but Ji Soo gestured behind him and saw that Sooji was walking through the water without any harm, “I can’t guard Sooji if she’s going in there without me.”

              Thinking quickly, Hongbin said, “Grab my hand tightly and don’t let go.”

              Hand in hand, Hongbin and Ji Soo made their way into the building, dodging the harsh flames and avoiding puddles of water where they could. Getting closer to SooJi, they could see that her form was slightly changed, but her emotions had not. She was holding her hand over her mouth and it was visible that tears were coming down her face. She looked carefully at each body she passed, touching each lightly to see if there was any hope that they were alive but then retracting her hand quickly. Her pace increased after each body she passed.

              The fire was loud, and the heat was roaring, but Ji Soo felt nothing and he felt thankful that he had Hongbin to help in this situation. Inside of the building they could see people crawling on the ground, begging for help. Ji Soo hoisted him onto his back while Hongbin held onto him, but turned quickly and accidentally let go of Ji Soo. Bracing for the worst, Ji Soo shut his eyes but found that nothing was happening.

              “The electricity must have shut off!” Hongbin yelled and Ji Soo nodded, running with the injured man to bring him outside, where he found teams of people helping each other out: electric users were bracing those with water powers in order to absorb the shockwaves, and fire users were hand in hand with those with electric powers as they made their way inside- and having turned off the electricity fields, were able to further get inside and help carry out the burning bodies. At the head, he could see Park directing the Nameless in how they could help each other, his tall stature and his booming voice made him a perfect leader in this situation- it seemed like he had no fear of anything going on around him. Healers outside were trying to do all they could to help the injured and had set up a temporary camp nearby before they would be able to transport them to the hospitals, which were still out of power themselves.

              The burning bodies that came out of the building wailed and they cried as they were, their skin almost all gone and some had exposed bones, and Ji Soo prepared himself to enter the building once more. As Ji Soo began to walk towards the building again there was a large blast and his heart jumped for a moment as he heard something unlike the sound of a blast- it sounded more like a roar of a beast. Out from the black smoke and flames came a large beast like a dragon and it circled around before re-entering the building. He stopped himself, was this what caused the explosion?

              It disappeared and its roaring could be heard over the sound of the roaring flames and the shouts and screams of onlookers. He shook, he was frozen in his place for he could not believe his eyes at what he just witnessed and no amount of training could have prepared him, but he took in an inhale and readied himself to enter, only stopping himself when he saw Park bolt inside.

              The young prince, who had run into the building with his team to see if there were any survivors left, found Sooji in a corner, leaning against a wall for support. She was inhaling smoke and coughing wildly. Due to Park’s fire ability, inhaling smoke was second nature, and the fire felt like nothing more than a cool breeze. 

              “Sooji!” he went to her and touched her shoulder. Just as she turned to look at him, she collapsed and he pulled her onto his back, carrying her out of the building where he found Hongbin at the tents.

              “What happened to her?”

              “She’s a bit exhausted. Do we know if there’s anybody inside still?”

              “They’re the children of Ignis,” he complimented Park’s team, “I’m sure they’ll find anybody if there are any left.”

              With the fire out, and the building searched, everyone had been brought to the hospitals nearby, and all of the healers were in full swing. Ji Soo sat by Sooji’s side, waiting patiently for her to wake up. A knock came at the door, and just as Ji Soo stood up, it opened to reveal Park. Both were exhausted and only waved at each other as Park took another seat in the room.

              Late into the night when both boys were asleep, they were suddenly woken up to the sound of screaming and saw that Sooji was flailing about while still asleep. Park pressed the ‘help’ button on the side of her bed, while helping Ji Soo to try and contain her- she was transforming in her sleep and they both grew worried.

              Park repeatedly pressed the ‘help’ button but nobody had shown up to aid them.

              “The hospital bust be really busy still!” Ji Soo spoke as he was being pushed and pulled around by a Sooji who grew stronger with every moment she got.  

              “No kidding!” Park complained until a healer walked through the door.

              “Oh, God, what’s happening?”

              “I pressed the help button, did you guys not hear it?” Park yelled, trying to still contain her.

              “No!” the healer looked stunned and froze in his place.

              “Can you help us or not?” Park argued.

              “I’m just a bone healer, I- I can’t-” he stammered out before running out of the room again.

              “Sooji wake up!” Ji Soo yelled but she could not hear him. “Sooji you have to wake up!”

              “Sooji I’ll kiss you if you don’t wake up!” Park tested to see if she was listening. “I mean it, I’ll do it! I know you’ve always had a crush on me, Sooji, so if you don’t wake up I’ll have to plant one right on you!”

              She still wailed and cried in her unshakeable sleep state and they grew worried.

              Ji Soo looked at Park who just shrugged, “I thought it would work.”

              Hongbin flew into the room shortly after and put his hands on Sooji’s exposed ankles, and even though he looked like he hadn’t slept in almost thirty-six hours, he used all of his power to calm her. All three were exhausted when she had finally calmed down and collapsed into the chairs in the room.

              “What. Happened?” Hongbin asked out of breath.

              “I think she’s having some kind of a nightmare. But she wouldn’t wake up from it.” Ji Soo reported.

              “Your last doctor didn’t really help, either.” Park sneered.

              “That was Jin, he’s only good at fixing bones and since everyone was accounted for I had sent him on rounds to check up on the patients.” Hongbin sprouted a small smile, “Such a sweet kid. He’s new, it’s no wonder he panicked.”

              “But I pressed the help button and nobody ca-”

              “Power is still out on some grids at the hospital. A lot of what we do have left has to be reverted to equipment for the patients who do not want to be healed by Nameless doctors.”

              “Isn’t the button… equipment?” Park argued.

              “Technically, yes, but even if it was online, I wouldn’t have been able to come until now.”

              “What about other healers, surely you’re not the only one?” Ji Soo questioned.

              “There are very few of us who are allowed to work for Nameless, and since the majority of the victims were Nameless, we have to stretch ourselves. I am one of three Healers in this hospital- we have the most out of all of the hospitals, too. Healers like us don’t come around as much as we need these days. And especially since I have many more abilities than others like Jin who has just one specialty, I have to stretch myself a bit further. I’m sorry that I took so long to get here, it really is my fault.”

              “No, you- you did all you could, I’m sorry about yelling at you.” Park apologized.

              “It’s understandable. Everyone is on high-alert after the explosion.”

              “I want to know what happened there.” Ji Soo contemplated, “Something doesn’t seem right.”

              “If you find out the cause before the investigators do, don’t be a stranger.” He held his hand up before exiting the room.

             

              Hours later, JiSoo had fallen asleep in his chair, and in the dim light of the room, Park could see that Sooji was opening her eyes.

              “Hey,” he grabbed his chair and put it beside her bed quietly as to not wake the other company, “how are you doing?”

              She mumbled and inhaled deeply, choking on the smoke that was exhaling from her lungs.

              “Take it easy,” he held her hand, “you went through a lot. You were really brave. What made you just go into the building like that you could have died?”

              She shrugged.

              “You didn’t want to die again, did you?” Park asked quietly, his voice sincere.

              Sooji shook her head.

              “You wanna tell me why then?”

              “I just… knew.”

              “What did you know?” he inquired further.

              “The three kids- I could hear them crying.”

              “There were no children inside, Sooji.” Park explained.

              “But I could hear them! They were calling my name and crying to me to save them!”

              Park thought for a moment and patted the back of her hand and told her to go back to sleep once more, to which she obeyed. Looking over at Ji Soo, Park could see that he was still asleep in his chair, and he saw the opportunity to leave the room for a moment.

              Ji Soo had been awake during the entire night, only appearing to be asleep. His heart grew oddly heavy hearing that Sooji had once before tried to end her life. “ _Was it only one time, though?”_ he thought to himself. “ _I sure hope so, nobody deserves to die at their own hand. If I’m to protect her, I have to protect her even from herself.”_

              Park returned with a cup of water in both of his hands, and gave one to Ji Soo.

              “Glad you’re awake. Did you sleep ok?”

              “As well as anybody can sleep in a hospital chair.” He cracked a smile before taking a sip.

              “Did she wake up while I was gone?”

              Ji Soo shook his head and Park only nodded in response.

              “Thanks for finding her in the building.” Ji Soo confessed to Park, “I don’t know what happened to me, I just stopped in my tracks after seeing the dragon.”

              “That’s okay, anybody can get scared after seeing an Engel’s first form.”

              Recalling what he had read in one of the books, he nodded, “It’s definitely different from just reading about it.”

              “You read about it?”

              “I was helping Sooji try and find some information about her powers in books she borrowed from Minseok’s library” -Ji Soo could clearly hear the water inside of Park’s cup boil suddenly- “so in reading, I learned a bit.” He stood, “If you excuse me I’m going to use the restroom, do you happen to know where it is?”

              “Down the hall then turn left. It’ll be on the left as well.”

              “Thank you.” He crumpled the cup and threw it into the waste bin on his way out.

              Carefully, Jisoo navigated the dimly lit hallways and reached the bathroom.

 

              “The explosion wasn’t nearly big enough to be done by the power plant alone- it had to be aided.” He heard as he entered.

              “Yes, but by what?” two men coming out of the bathroom before him chatted, and he couldn’t help himself but to follow them to hear their conversation further. Using the darkness of the hallways to his advantage, he stalked them.

              “I want to say it was a bomb, but it definitely wasn’t. Being inside of there made me think of it like someone who knew what they were doing pulled the right plugs and had the machines overheat themselves.”

              “You think so?”

              “The cooling generators were offline when I went inside looking for any survivors.”

              “Yeah, I saw that, but wasn’t that part of the switch over they were doing?”

              “But this happened an hour earlier than it should have, it was definitely planned to play alongside the blackout.”

              Ji Soo left while he still had time, and knew he wouldn’t get caught. With the information he received, he sought to find Hongbin, and the two bumped into each other in the hallway.

              “I’m glad I found you, do you have a minute?”

              “Yes, what’s the matter? Is it Sooji again?”

              “No,” he lowered his voice, “I overheard some of the fire Nameless talking about what they found inside of the plant.”

              Listening carefully to what Ji Soo told him he nodded.

              “That’s the same thing the prince told me, but he heard from Sooji that she had heard three children calling for her in the building. I definitely have an idea about what kind of thing we’re dealing with, and it doesn’t surprise me. I’ll be able to give you more information once I find out for sure.” He patted Ji Soo’s shoulder and went on his way.

              Watching Hongbin walk away, he thought, _“Park beat me to it already?”_  

 

              As he walked back to the room, he could hear Sooji screaming for him, calling for him to save her and to help her from the opposite direction and he began to jog that way, listening intently for where the location of her screaming was coming from. The hallways he traveled through became darker and darker and he froze for a moment, hearing her call his name at the end of the hall.

              “Run to me, Ji Soo! I need you!” her voice screamed out.

              It was then that a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction.

              “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Hongbin barked at him. “You can’t see down that direction and you have no reason to be down there, anyway. You might be Sooji’s friend but that doesn’t give you the right to parade yourself all over my hospital.”

              “Sooji is screaming for me down the hallway, don’t you hear her? I have to go to her!”

              “Sooji is still in the room where you left her. I don’t know what you’re hearing but you need to return to her room.”

              It was then that her screaming stopped and he regained his senses.

 

              In Sooji’s room, Ji Soo was quiet and contemplating what he had heard.

              “Are you okay?” Park finally asked, breaking the silence.

              “I think I’m just tired.”

              “If you’re hearing things it wouldn’t surprise me.” Park explained. “I think all that lightning and smoke was a cover.”

              “For what?”

              “The opening of a rift.”

              “You’re talking nonsense.”

              “Fine, don’t listen. Just continue to go running this way and that because you think you hear someone calling for you.”

              Jisoo’s eyes focused sharply on Park- what he had said caught his attention. How exactly did he know, though? Did he watch him running?

              “It’s happened once before in my lifetime, the rift. I was friends with one of the Sons of Magnus. They can control your mind and scream into your thoughts, but each one has a different intention. There were nine- the Nightmare Children- I was friends with one of them.”

              “What happened to them?”

              “A few Engels cast them into a void with Magnus himself, because he had killed another Engel.”

              “I thought Engels can’t die?”

              “Apparently he found out a way.” He shrugged. “Engels don’t really _die_ , either, per say, they just get their attributes passed onto a new person- their children, usually. If not it’s someone else who is worthy or something.” Park shrugged again.

              “Why would they want to come after Sooji? And me? It doesn’t make sense to me?”

“ _I’m_ not the one who can read minds, okay. I have no idea.”

              “Sorry I asked.” Ji Soo retorted.

              They sat in silence and Park thought about his past as he closed his eyes. He could see the world as it was those many years ago and how he had seen, in the distance, a rift form in the sky with black smoke and thunder all around it. Out of the rift came the Engel Magnus and the Nightmare Children. It was almost immediately that other Engels showed up and began to exchange ancient words with him, with the children of the Engels fought back the Nightmare Children, each being tormented in their own minds. Park, being an Engel child himself, ran forward to help, but was blocked and guarded by his own father who had shown up. Park watched as his elder brothers turned on each other, and began to beat each other to death for the laughter and enjoyment of one of the Nightmare Children.

              _“Father, make them stop!” the young park cried._

_“Mulciber,” he called him formally, “there is nothing we can do to free their minds so long as Anima is gone. Do not look.” Ignis knelt down next to his son and covered his eyes with his long robe._

_Ignis was then called into battle by his twin brother, Glacies, and he left Park at a safe distance away, but he could not help himself but to watch as his father ended the lives of his two older brothers, only to end the life of the Nightmare Child who had caused it._

              The curse of the Nightmare Children spread throughout the world during that time, and it caught back up with Park while he was near the same area a few years later. He had met a young boy, who spoke with a stutter, claiming an evil witch had turned him into a half-fawn boy. Park said nothing of the witch and paid it no mind, and befriended the boy instead, taking him to a nearby village and introducing him to the friends he had there. By the time Park had found out that the boy was indeed a Nightmare Child, he had formed a deep bond that killing him seemed like a farfetched idea. In telling his father, he pleaded not to kill the boy, and with the help of the other Engels, they were able to open the void and cast the last remaining remnant of Magnus in the form of the boy, into it. The curse ceased to exist from that moment on.

              The curse was revived, however, when someone had opened the rift above the city’s power source, causing the blackout and chaos. With the cover of darkness that was the thirteenth month, the Nightmare Children could cover and conceal themselves among the crowds and go unnoticed as they caused chaos for anybody they wished.

 

              In the week to follow, life became quiet and the workers repaired the power facility quickly, and set up the power grid once more, returning electricity to the city area. It was around that time that Sooji was stable enough to return home, having consumed so much energy in her transformation that it took a longer time to recover fully even with Hongbin’s help.

              Ji Soo and Sooji took a hovercraft over the city back to her apartment, and the destruction was more than they had initially thought. Because of the outage, crimes had become high in the city and everyone was busy cleaning up after the mess it had caused. Arriving at their building, Ji Soo asked to go first up the stairs.

              “Are you paranoid or something?” Sooji asked as she trudged up the steps.

              “Your HM asked you not to come home, if you care to remember, there must have been a reason.”

              Arriving at the top of the staircase, his eyes grew a bit wide- the door had very visibly been tampered with- claw marks framed the entire structure. Whatever it was had even begun to dig into the wall and Ji Soo took his gun out, holding it steadily in front of him.

              Knocking, the door opened for him, and both of them entered with caution.

              “W-what a nice, friendly face to see!” the HM’s voice greeted. “I’m so glad you stayed away like I had told you to- someone or, rather, _something,_ broke into the apartment. I tried to clean everything up, as you can see. It’s not perfect- it’s difficult when you’re running on reserve power!”

              “I can imagine.” Ji Soo spoke as he looked around, trying not to tamper with anything yet.

              “You don’t have any videos of anything, do you?” Sooji asked.

              “I’m not completely useless- the backup security cameras caught everything.”

              “Can you show us?” she asked and it was projected on the wall where the clearscreen used to be- it had been broken into shards.

              They watched the footage and could only see a large figure enter into the house forcibly, stumbling this way and that. The audio kicked in, and it was calling for Sooji. They could hear the HM try to negotiate with it, but it grew angrier and began to throw a fit. Behind him, through the door, came two girls, who stood there and laughed a bit before they vanished. The dark figure had thrashed through the house before leaving and the video ended.

              “What the heck was that about?”

              “I don’t know,” the HM confessed, “but I did manage to capture a photo of their faces. It seems you know this man?”

              “I - _what_?!” Sooji complained as she looked at the photo she was given. “This is that Night Crawler Lord.”

              “The one who let you borrow the sweater?” Ji Soo asked, turning around to face the clearscreen and confirm his suspicions.

              “I don’t recognize these two girls, though.”

              “HM, could you send those to my PA?” Ji Soo asked the HM.

              “Sure thing, sir.” It responded.

              “I gotta tell my dad about this now, I feel bad even telling him.”

              “I’ll break the news to him after I make my first call.” Ji Soo nodded, “Why don’t you go take a shower in the meanwhile, I’m sure you’d like to relax after all the things that had happened to us recently.”

              Sooji nodded as Ji Soo asked her HM to put up a sound proofing on his room.

 

              Ji Soo waited as the call rang and rang- he waited for Noctis to answer. It was the longest five minutes he had ever spent, and when Noctis picked up the call, he suddenly became alert.

              “Yes, Ji Soo? What’s the issue?” Noctis looked and sounded bothered.

              “I have some photos I need you to look at.” Ji Soo sent them to his superior’s screen and Noctis had a look at them, immediately recognizing them.

              “Where did you get these photos from?” and didn’t want to wait for the boy’s answer, “Tell me where these are from!” he demanded.

              “These three people broke into Sooji’s apartment while we were away for the power outage. One of them is your friend Soohyuk, I know that for certain, but who are the other two people? The two girls, who are they?”

              Noctis was silent for a moment, but spoke up, suddenly, “I have to call someone else into this conversation, I hope you won’t mind.”

              “Go ahead.” He said and a third screen showed itself and they waited for the call to connect itself. There was a man who wasn’t recognizable by Ji Soo and he waited until Noctis introduced him.

              “Ignis, I’m glad you picked up.”

              “What with all the formality? And who’s your friend?”

              “Ignis, this is Ji Soo, the boy I trained in Special Forces for all of this time. I put him on assignment guarding Sooji.”

              Ji Soo was quiet but bowed himself out of respect for the Engel.

              “Ji Soo came across something interesting during our power outage.”

              “And what was that, hm?” Ignis seemed a bit cold and uninterested.

              “I’ve sent you the images- you tell me what _that_ was.” Noctis spit back at him and waited in silence.

              Ignis could not bring himself to stop staring at the screen and Ji Soo could see the anger welling up behind his eyes.

              “Are you joking me? Noctis, tell me this is a prank. This is forged, this can’t be real.” Ignis spoke and despite being angry, he was surprisingly level-headed and calm.

              “The Nightmare Children have been brought back from the void of hell.” Noctis spoke in a calm manner himself.

              “Tell your brother he’s messing with the wrong people.” Ignis’ words were sharp. “I’m going to put his head above my fireplace.”

              “This is still my brother we’re talking about.”

              “Are you defending him? After he-” Ignis stayed his own mouth and inhaled deeply.

              “You know I would never defend Lucis.” Noctis spoke and paused for a moment to laugh at something he thought about, but his face stiffened up as he continued, “This must be stopped, if you would do me the honor of warning your brother, Lympha, and Aura. I’ll warn-”

              “What was that last one?”

              “Aura.” Noctis leaned in a little closer to the screen, “I’ll be warning Sonus, Terra and Procella.”

              “No. I’ll warn Terra and _you_ warn Aura.”

              “It’s not that bad, she likes you the most, anyway.”

              “She hates every fiber of my being.”

              “She still likes you more than she likes me.”

              “I’ll get Glacies to do it.”

              “Glacies won’t do it, you have to.”

              “You owe me for this.”

              “Remember, Ignis, we don’t know how many have been released or even revived. We don’t know what kind of timelines he’s been able to tap into, so we’ll put the warning out for all of them.”

              “Agreed.” Ignis nodded.

              “Ji Soo, don’t worry about Soohyuk for now, I’ll go and seek him out myself. He could be dangerous when he’s rattled and there’s no telling what these girls did to him to cause him to lash out like this. In all of the years that I’ve known him he’s never been one to succumb to such a thing, so please be patient. I will contact you when I have information regarding it.”

              “Thank you, sir.”

              “And thank you for protecting Sooji.”

              “She was in the hospital recently. We were close by the site with Hongbin and she went inside and transformed herself claiming that she heard the voices of children inside of the building calling to her.”

              Ignis glanced at Noctis who was lost in his thoughts while listening to Ji Soo.

              “When we were in the hospital, I ran through dark hallways because I had heard her calling out to me, but Hongbin pulled me out saying she wasn’t there. He was right, she was in the room.”

              “Lucis knows about you. It will only get harder for you from here on out and I’m sorry about it. You can quit at any time y-”

              “I won’t quit.” Ji Soo defended himself. “I’ll fulfil my duty until my last breath.”

              “Thank you.” Noctis nodded, “I’ll send you what information I have on these Nightmare Children, though it might not help much, given that you have no powers.”

              “You sent a Ghommon to protect Sooji? Now I’ve really seen it all.”

              Noctis had no more to say and Ignis excused himself for a moment, but his screen still presented itself. Ji Soo could see that his lips were moving, but the sound must have been cut for a moment.

              “Ji Soo,” Noctis began again, “I’m going to have a meeting with the Engels so I ask that we end our conversation here. Keep a steady eye out and if anything begins to talk into your head again, feel free to talk back.”

              “W-what should I say?” Ji Soo quickly asked as he saw more Engels were joining into the conversation.

              “Anything you’d like.” He smiled before the screen was cut.

 

              “Sir,” the HM’s voice stammered out, “please come quickly, Sooji has locked herself in the bathroom- she can’t stop throwing up. I’ve already alerted Hongbin but it doesn’t appear that he will arrive shortly, it may be a while due to some circumstances at the hospital.”

              Ji Soo sprung up from his seat and opened up the door and looked in front of him at the locked bathroom door. He could hear Sooji crying inside.

              “Sooji?” he knocked on the door, “Sooji open this door.” His voice lacked empathy.

              “No.” she sniveled out, her voice was weak.

              “I demand you open this door.” He heard himself and paused for a moment.

              “I do think a little, er, sympathy would do your voice wonders, sir.” The HM spoke to Ji Soo before he could hear the HM speaking to Sooji, telling her that he was going to allow Ji Soo into the door but she was refusing. Ji Soo was allowed to enter, regardless, and he found Sooji on the floor of the bathroom, trying to hide herself away from him.

              “Sooji.” He said, his words were a bit stern and tried saying her name again, but in an attempt at a gentler tone- something that years of Special Forces training had eradicated completely.

              HM had projected a scene on a screen, silently, and guided Ji Soo what he should do. He put his hand on her shoulder as instructed and watched the video where the man was rubbing the girl’s back and he followed suit. The HM wrote some sample dialogues for him to choose from.

              “Sooji, how –” he stopped reading and spoke on instinct, “Sooji, you’re shaking!”

              “It appears that Sooji is having PTSD, I’m sure you’re well aware of what from.” HM spoke.

              “I keep seeing the melted bodies.” She cried and Ji Soo was confused as to what to do next until the HM handed him a small, plastic ring.

              He was confused for a moment until the HM gave him instructions on how to tie her hair back behind her head. Taking his time, and following exactly what he was reading, he managed to do it on his fifth try. The HM’s robotic arm gave him a ‘thumbs up’ before it suggested that Sooji clean herself up.

              “Do you need help?” Ji Soo offered but she shook her head and lightly held her arm out, as if to push him towards the door- she wanted him out. “Allow me to help you.” He grabbed her arm and helped her into the shower area, and left to allow herself to finish the job. Waiting outside the door, his stance was more slack than usual, and for once he felt sorry that she was suffering.


	10. BONUS CODE: WONPIL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Unedited and subject to change a little bit

              Suddenly the lights went out. It wouldn’t be a problem since the power outage was announced earlier in the day, however, it came an hour earlier, not that Wonpil minded it much. The truth was, in his mind, you didn’t need light to make good music, as long as your instruments work. 

              “ _But what’s the use of an old thing like this? It doesn’t run on electricity; the sound is weak.”_ He recalled some of his friends mocking him as he bought an antique instrument- the ancestor to the keyboard he played on currently. He mocked them.

              “Ah, I’m so hungry,” his mood suddenly changed and hearing the whipping, cold winds outside of his home, he bundled up a bit more before grabbing his PA in the shape of a shark and turning it into a flashlight. “I’ll go to the corner store, I heard they were using a generator.” He giggled at the thought.

              Gripping tightly onto his clothes, the boy slowly made his way down the street. Despite the whipping winds and the dreadful cold, the atmosphere was quiet but not peaceful- he felt uncomfortable. He made it to the store, dim store lights and his own flashlight guided his way to the back where he found the snacks he was looking for, and grabbing a few, he brought them to the counter. Passing the credits along to the shop keeper, he grabbed the bag and head back out into the harsh weather.

              “Y-you! Wait!” he could have sworn he heard someone’s deep calling out to him and he paused, turning around and using his light to see this way and that way, but saw nobody.

              “Now you’re really going crazy, Wonpil.” He said out loud to himself and giggled. Wonpil was not looking where he was going, for he put his head down to protect it from the weather, and with one more step he bumped into someone.

              “I’m sorry!” he yelled to bring his voice above the surroundings and looked up to see a daunting figure.  Tall, dark, and pale, he could easily see it was a Night Crawler and it was even easier to see that the man’s condition was not well.

              “You there.” The Night Crawler spoke and he recognized it as the same voice that had spoken before, and the man stabled his wobbling body by placing his arm on Wonpil’s shoulder for support.

              “Yes, sir? Do you need help?” he asked politely.

              “I… I need-GAH!” the man began to yell and scream, which pierced Wonpil’s ears. It was high pitched, and roaring like a bomb- metallic and unlike anything he had experienced. The man was grabbing his head, and fell to his knees as he continued. Taking a quick step around him, Wonpil’s pace quickened.

              It was when he reached the front door of his apartment that he felt an icy grip on his shoulder, and another on his head, and he tried to break from the grasp, but couldn’t. The creature pushed the boy against a wall, rendering him helpless, and he felt a great pain in his neck, passing out soon after.

              When Wonpil woke, he felt groggy, and confused, but sat up on his couch.

              “Ah, you’re awake.” He heard a dark voice and looking to his right, he froze. “Don’t be alarmed, Wonpil.”

              “S-s-sir?” he stammered out, “Y-you’re-”

              Noctis nodded, “There’s no reason to be afraid or startled, I’m not here to punish you or anything. Rather, I’m here to apologize.”

              “What?” he regained his voice but his hand still shook, and he scratched his neck where he felt two scars. His heartrate began to speed up. “What’s this?”

              “That’s what I wish to apologize for. It appears that my friend has caused some damage to you and unfortunately there is no cure for becoming a Night Crawler. There are a few things I _can_ do to help you in this situation, though.”

              “I’m a- a _what?_ ”

              “Two days ago, you were bitten in the neck by Soohyuk, the Night Crawler Lord after he had been experiencing some… troubling thoughts. To put it simply, he went a little insane, and did this. I came here to apologize for my friend’s behavior.”

              Wonpil was stunned and his eyes opened wide, suddenly he remembered everything.

              “You remembering the incident is a good sign, it means that his bite wasn’t as effective as it could have been.”

              “What does that...mean?” the boy was confused, and rightfully so.

              Noctis was quiet for a while and thought of the right words to use before saying, “While you will turn into a Night Crawler, that much is certain, you might not have the same gifts and powers as the others. Perhaps you will only become a Night Crawler by name only.”

              “I don’t understand.”

              “Soohyuk is the Lord of them all. He is the highest you could go for a Night Crawler and in his time, he has only bitten a handful of others, and those people are currently the rulers of the Doull.”

              Wonpil was stunned that something like this could even be considered an honor- to him it was a bit unpleasing to think about Night Crawlers let alone actually _be_ one.

              “Soohyuk’s bite possesses something far more unnatural than I care to explain, but he abstains from biting individuals for this very reason. In the case of that, I’m going to help you in any way that you need.”

              “I don’t… want to bite people.” His demeanor grew depressed and Noctis snorted a laugh as he stood from the chair he borrowed.

              “You won’t have to bite anybody,” Noctis shook his head, “that’s where I can help you.”

              Even if his words were short, Wonpil could feel a strange aura about them, as if Noctis was hiding something. His eyes were steady on Wonpil and it was unnerving, but the boy couldn’t help but stare back.

              “Okay.” Wonpil looked down and nodded- he felt almost ashamed. “But I really don’t want to bite anybody.”

              “There won’t be any need for that.” He smiled and shook his head. “Wonpil, I’ll make sure to take care of you fully. All you have to do is ask. I’ve left my personal messaging on your counter, here.” He gestured to it.

              “T-thank you.” He was on the verge of tears.

              “Why are you crying?” was his voice condescending or sympathetic- Wonpil couldn’t tell and he got more scared and began to tear up, more, unable to control himself. Noctis grew nervous.

              “Please don’t cry.” Noctis came towards the boy who only began to cry more and taking a step back, he was unsure of what to do. In the moment, he thought of an idea and drew nearer to the boy, kneeling beside him on the floor and looked up at him. “I’m going to have someone come here to help you. I trust this person very much and they will be able to explain everything for you.”

              The Engel vanished and as quickly as he left, he returned with a rather small potted plant in his hand. He held it underneath his falling tears and the plant began to glow. Giving it to Wonpil, the boy was too concentrated on the glowing plant to notice that Noctis had vanished once more. Wiping his tears, he watched the plant for a little more before placing it on the table and suddenly it transformed into a girl. He was taken aback and sank further into the couch.

              “W-who are you?”

              “Ah! I’m free!” she said happily. “Are you the one who freed me?”

              “Uh-”

              “It _was_ you, wasn’t it?” she smiled. “Oh, why are you sad?”

              The boy was startled, understandably so, and she introduced herself, “My name is Jieun and I was twenty when I became a Night Crawler, sort of like you, right? That’s why you’re crying, right?”

              Wonpil nodded shakily, still confused about the matter.

              “Noctis gave me to you so I could help you learn about being a Night Crawler. He said so before I became one of his plants, too.” she smiled and mocked Noctis voice, “’Jieun, one day you’re going to help someone out with your power because you’re patient and you’re good at teaching others so just wait for your time to be useful.’ I waited and waited,” she confessed, “and I’m so glad that I’m finally able to use my ability.”

              “You were a plant.” Wonpil was still baffled and she laughed.

              As he calmed down, he felt relieved. At least someone would be able to help him now. Still awestruck, he sat in his place as the girl got up from the coffee table and stretched herself, and walked to his kitchen and looked all around with a sense of awe and wonder.

              “What year is it?” she peered from behind a door.

              “Uh,” he looked to his PA who gave her the year and she gasped.

              “Has it been that long? I’ve been a plant for, wow, over two thousand years! I have an idea!”

              “W-what’s your idea?”

              “Teach me about everything new and I’ll teach you about being a Night Crawler! I’m sure nothing has changed, they’ve been the same for… forever!”

              She was cheerful and he felt himself become energetic.  

              “First thing is first-”

              “I don’t want to drink blood, though.”

              “Night Cralwers don’t drink blood, though,” she shook her head, “they feed from emotions. Different emotions taste differently to each of us, so you have to find out which one you like the best and always try to find people with those emotions, or cause those emotions.”        

              “How do I do that?” he sounded defeated.

              “You can just hold their hand or touch a shoulder- any kind of contact with that person! Sometimes, you can drink blood if you don’t find the emotions you like, but it’s very rare. I’ve done it but,” she made a face and shook her head, “it’s gross. My favorite emotions are laughter and curiosity.”

              “Do I have to keep trying to find out mine?”

              “That’s right!” she held out her hand as she came towards him, “Try it out!”

              He took her small, pale hand and he felt a small warmth- the feeling of her emotions. She was very happy and curious, and he could feel those things from her and it made him smile. As he smiled, she began to giggle and his face changed into one of pure joy- the feeling of her emotions overwhelmed him and he became very energetic almost immediately.  

              “It seems like we found a good feeling for you.” She smiled, “Most Night Crawlers love the same kind of energy- though most of them look scary a lot of the time.”

              “They do!” Wonpil frowned, “Why is that?”

              “It’s better to be feared when you’re a low rank in society.” She spoke with a different kind of voice and gently took her hand away from his, “Night Crawlers used to be hunted, maybe they still are- I don’t know, but we were tortured because of our low ranking and so we started to show ourselves off as scary individuals and I hope it worked.”

              “They’re so scary.”

              “Please, can I see the lord, i-is it still Soohyuk?”

              “I don’t think you can see him right now.” He confessed and felt at his neck, “He’s the one who bit me.”

              “Soohyuk?” she looked at him in disbelief, shaking her head, “He would never.”

              “I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s what I was told.”

              “You were told wrong.” She became defensive. “Who told you that kind of a lie?”

              “It was I.” Noctis’ voice came from behind them both and it startled Wonpil once more.

              “N-Noctis?” her eyes were wide, “But why would Soohyuk do such a thing?”

              “I can fill you in on those details, later, but for now, I cam to bring you up to date.”

              Noctis held the girl’s head in his hand gently and her eyes closed as he did so.

              “Wonpil, how are you feeling?”

              “A little better.” He looked down out of the eyes of the Engel, “She taught me about the emotions.”

              “Good, I’m glad. You’ll learn a lot about being a Night Crawler soon, I’ve enrolled you in a fine school, but it’s further south. I’ll cover everything as I stated before. You can take Jieun with you, I’m sure she would love to go back and relearn some of the new things Night Crawlers have to offer.”

              “But why are you doing this for me?”

              “I told you, since it was my friend’s fault, I’d like to apologize for his behavior. I also think that you could come in handy later on.” Noctis smiled. “Details will be sent to you shortly, and a driver will come to pick you up not too long from now.”

              “Leave so soon?”

              “Yes,” he nodded, “it’s a long time to be away in a school like that. I think it takes five years to complete.”

              “Five years?” he looked dismayed.

              “Yes, but don’t worry, whatever progress you have made in this school will continue in that school as well.”

              “But I… I don’t want to go!” Wonpil spoke up and immediately regretted his slip of words. His eyes grew big in fear.

              “No?” Noctis was timid, “After all the strings I pulled to get you in that school?”

              “I’m sorry, but, I really can’t accept it.” Wonpil sighed and looked down at the ground, fearing the worst.

              Noctis let go of Jieun’s head and she opened her eyes again and smiled.

              “Can’t accept what?” she asked.

              “He doesn’t want to go to the Night Crawler’s school in the south.” He spoke to her casually.

              “Oh, but that’s such a great school!” she looked at Wonpil, “It would really help you learn about who you are now!”  
              “I don’t want to _be_ a Night Crawler!” he spoke loudly and let out a quick sigh- he had gotten it off his chest.

              Noctis was quiet for a moment, calculating his words once more and straightened his back, his eyes becoming sharp and his voice serious as he spoke, “Wonpil, this _is_ who you are, and as the reigning Engel of Houhn, I order you to attend at least one year of the Night Crawler’s school. After the one year then you can make your decision whether you wish to stay or not.”

              The atmosphere grew dark and Wonpil immediately bowed his head and when he looked up, the Engel was gone.

              Jieun was a bit quiet for a moment, and her words were soft when she spoke, “You should be thankful he’s doing something like this for you. Noctis isn’t as bad as he seems but he’s never this free, either. To be able to do something like this is a great honor and you pushed it back into his face.”

              “I don’t want this life.” Wonpil was sad.

              “None of the Night Crawlers you’ll talk to really want this life. It’s not something that we can choose, so we have to struggle with it every single day. Noctis could have just left you without saying a word, and you would have died without knowing why you were dying. He is choosing to give you a good life.”

              He was perplexed and upset and excused himself for a while, leaving Jieun by herself in the living room. He heard her leave and coming out of his room, he saw that she was truly gone.

              Going to the counter, he looked at the clearscreen that was left for him by Noctis and it detailed his entire trip, when the hovercar would arrive for him, what he should pack with him, and other details of the like. He passed time while reading through it and didn’t notice the day go by so quickly until Jieun returned with a wooden box in her hand.

              “There you are!” he put the clearscreen device down, “You left without saying anything.”

              “I went to get this!”

              “What is it?”

              “I have a gift for you!” she smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Jieun is Lee Jieun aka IU! IU makes her debut in CODE haha :'D


	11. CODE: FIRE AND ICE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another unedited chapter. Please forgive me. It will be edited when I am finished with CODE. I was advised to stop going back and revising and finish the book first, then go back and edit it all, so please don't mind the unfinished nature of these past, and upcoming chapters! I think you for understanding!

              A polite knock came at the door of Soohyuk’s apartment and opening it, Soohyuk saw Noctis standing with a smile at his door. The Engel was allowed in.

              “How are you feeling?”

              “It’s unlike you to come and check up on me without prior notice, so I guess you can say I’m a little startled.”

              “Yes, please excuse me for coming unannounced.”

              “Would you like something to drink?”

              “Tea, thank you, I shouldn’t be here long, though.”

              “Did you have something to discuss? I would imagine it’s important if you came here so suddenly.” Soohyuk beamed a smile at his friend.

              “Are you trying to terrorize my daughter?”

              Soohyuk froze for a moment, trying to understand the grasp of what his age-old friend had said, and turned to look at Noctis. “Excuse me?” his expression dropped and became serious.

              “I have video evidence of you in my daughter’s house looking for her.” Noctis threw his PA at the table in the middle of the room and it projected the video above it. Soohyuk stopped what he was doing to observe it carefully.

              With folded arms, he stared at the looping recording for a while, carefully observing every piece and detail. “Pause the video.” He suddenly said, and it froze when the girls arrived. “Continue.” He commanded and it did so. “Pause.” It froze again. “Continue.” He did this a few more times until he looked up at Noctis and waited to see if his friend would burst out laughing, or confess that it was a joke, but his silence was unnerving.

              “Noctis-”

              “Soohyuk.” Noctis spoke over him, “This _is_ you.”

              “It is.” Soohyuk confessed without an expression, his eyes never darting away from Noctis.

              Noctis stared back intently and Soohyuk grew worried. In their lifetimes, they had only fought between each other one time, and the battle grew so intense that another Engel had to intervene. Soohyuk, although not an Engel, was very powerful as a Night Crawler Lord, a sort of anti-Engel in his own right. They had promised not to fight after that, and Noctis was doing everything in his power to not become overwhelmed with his anger and lunge at his friend. Soohyuk, however, knew that he could potentially overpower his friend, given that Noctis no longer possessed his Engel Crystal, not that he _wanted_ to fight Noctis, but if push came to shove, he would have to.

              “I’m not going to ask why. I’m also not going to ask what you planned on doing with the young boy you bit.” Noctis suddenly spoke to Soohyuk’s surprise and the Engel began to leave the apartment but paused, turning to look at his friend, he spoke again, “And as my friend, I wish you wouldn’t work for Lucis behind my back.” Soohyuk was stunned to hear him say those words and he felt guilt come over him, “If you decide that you don’t want to be my friend anymore, then that’s up to you, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t do that.”

              Noctis left Soohyuk’s apartment with a bit of anger in his heart, but knew that his words would stick with his friend for a while and possibly change his attitude towards the situation. He had bigger issues to take care of. Arriving at his next destination a short time after, he knocked on the door many times quickly and waited for an answer.

              “S-Sir!” Younghyun fully bowed as he opened the door.

              Noctis smiled.

              “Please, come in!” Younghyun stepped aside and allowed the Engel to enter, ducking through the doorway as he did. “W-would you like anything to drink?”

              “Tea, please.” He said and laughed to himself, thinking about the tea he never received at Soohyuk’s apartment.

              “Y-yes sir!” Younghyun scrambled to the kitchen and brought back the cup as quickly as he could as it filled itself with tea. “To what do I owe the honor of you visiting me?”

              “I noticed you’re working for Lucis and I don’t really appreciate that.” Noctis’ words seemed uncharacteristically timid and casual, “Do you know how hard I worked to get you here, and then you go and do that?”

              “I’m sorry, sir.” The boy held his head down, “I incurred some debt with him, and I have to work to pay it off.”

              “How much of it is left?” the Engel inquired.

              “HM, could you bring me the debt number?” Younghyun asked and a clearscreen showed up between them indicating the number of credits left on his debt marker.

              Noctis took his PA off of his shoulder and put it into his hand, and speaking to it, spoke, “Transfer this amount of credits from my account into my brother’s.”

              “What?” Younghyun was surprised. “But why? This has nothing to do with you!”

              “I created you, I should have responsibility for you.”

              “I’ll pay you back, sir, I-”

              “No, you owe nothing to anybody anymore.” Noctis finished his tea quickly. “You can do as you please now, but don’t talk to Lucis anymore, or I’ll send you back to where you came from.”

              Younghyun could feel a bead of sweat trail down the back of his neck and he thanked Noctis, bowing politely a few times as the man left the apartment as quickly as he came. The boy noticed, too, later that day, that his tattoo had vanished- he was truly no longer on Lucis’ side. Younghyun’ PA rang and it came to him with a message, it read: “Your New Assignment.”

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

 

              “Good afternoon.” Sooji was greeted by the man at the front desk. The museum had an unpleasant feel to it. “Are you here for a tour?”  
              “Yes, that is correct.” She spoke timidly.

              “I do ask that you put your things onto the conveyor here and fill out this form while we wait for the scan to be complete.”

              Sooji did as she was told and was given a pass to enter the museum. Able to wander freely, she used the clearscreen map to guide herself to the hall with information concerning the Engels. Starting from the very first piece of information, she read every word diligently.

              “Didn’t expect to see you here!” she heard a familiar voice and turning around she smiled: it was Park.

              He opened his arms wide and drew in for a hug and squeezed her tightly before letting her go with a laugh.

              “What information are you looking for?”

              “I’m trying to see if there’s any more information on shapeshifting or powers. I want to know all I can about everything on what being a Nameless really is.”

              “But why are you reading about Engels?” his voice quavered a bit.

              “There has to be an Engel for shapeshifting, and it seems like there was one, at one point. Agathangelus.” She pointed to the painting.

              “Yeah, when he died his powers were divided and given to his brothers.” Chanyeol said matter-of-factly. “Both brothers have the same capabilities but they use them in different ways and it looks different when you use them.

              “Really? People who use light can teleport?”

              “In a way- they can go invisible instead. They bend the light around them instead of bending dark matter, so they can alter the way the world looks around themselves.” He smiled.

              “Geez, do you know all of this information by heart?” she laughed as she continued to stare at the painting- the man depicted was more beautiful than any she had seen before.

              “I’ve been a tour guide for forever, I have to know all of it.” He stood next to her and looked at the painting.

 

              “How did he die?” she suddenly became curious as they walked to the next painting.

              “I don’t know that. I don’t know if anybody does.”

              “Really?” she looked up at him. “It’s difficult to kill an Engel, right?”

              “ _Some_ people say that you can only kill an Engel if you’re an Engel yourself. I don’t know if it’s true, personally, but-”

              “Park’s right.” She heard another voice all too familiar, and looked behind Park’s figure to see Jisung standing there, a book in her hand.

              She looked different than the last time Sooji had seen her, there was something dark about her and Sooji could feel it. Her hair was shaved on one side, and her lips were painted black, and she donned a black stripe on the shaved side of her head. Was it a gang? Fashion? Regardless of what Sooji thought, nothing would help how she felt about Jisung: she still didn’t like being around her.

              “My research has proven it. You can only destroy Engel cells with other Engels. Not even our most advanced technology can break it apart, but another Engel cell can break through it without an issue. Quite fascinating that another Engel would kill him, especially if he was supposed to be the greatest of them all. What a pitiful quality: to be the leader of such miserable people.”

              Sooji kept her mouth shut.

              “You don’t want to respond? Is that because you’re one of those people now and you’ve come to realize how sad you are?” Jisung smirked and started to walk off, but stopped and turned to speak to Sooji once more, “And I don’t want you coming back to the museum any more, or I’ll kill you myself.”

              “For what reason?” Sooji snarled. “What the hell do you have against Nameless, anyway? You were so fond of them before-”

              “Back to your old argument?” she was full of pride, and Sooji could see it in her eyes that something had taken over her thoughts and ideas. “Looks like you’re only going to go in a circle over and over in your life and that’s just pathetic.”

              “Not as pathetic as abandoning everything you once knew for what? Power?”

              “What are you even talking about?”

              “Sacrificing Nameless to improve yourself. You don’t know what you’re tampering with and it’s going to destroy you in the end.” Sooji spoke. “I can see it in your eyes, you’re tampering too much with Nameless power, you should stop before it consumes you completely.”

              “You’re scared that I’ll unlock too much power?” she laughed, “Oh, please, I would never stoop as low as to become a Nameless worm.”

              Sooji could feel herself shake- her heart was beating fast and she knew she should leave, and began to walk off, and it was then that she felt something grab her leg and pull her down, causing her to hit the floor with a loud thump. Looking back, Jisung laughed a shrill laugh.

              “It’s not Nameless power, but another type of black magic that I’ve been dealing with.” She smirked.

              “What’s wrong with you?” Sooji huffed and got up from the floor, trying to leave quickly but was tripped once more and fell to the ground again.

              “I don’t like your tone of voice. You’ve always looked down on me, even when we were roommates. You always thought I was less than you but now look, you’re powerless before me. I’ve placed a curse on you, so you can’t use your powers to help you escape this time.” she spoke and Sooji felt cold as she tried to transform into something- anything- that would help her get out of this situation but it was like she said, and couldn’t use her powers. “I hope you have fun being nothing, now.”

              “Jisung.” Called the Doctor, who came down the hallway from the same door Jisung had come from. “I told you that you are not allowed to cast spells on people outside of the safety zone.”

              “I wasn’t casting it on anybody important.” She smirked.

              “This is your friend, you are not supposed to hurt your friends.” Dr. A went around Jisung and helped Sooji get into her feet, her body feeling heavy.

              “She’s not my friend anymore!” she threw her temper into her voice, and spun on her heels to walk back through the door where she came from.

              “I have to admit, this is my fault.” Dr. A spoke in apology, “I told her to research some other forms of powers, and it seems like she really took to this one.”

              “It’s fine, I just want to leave, anyway.”

              “Go, go, she won’t bother you anymore.”

              Sooji did as she was told and left the museum, Park following behind her.

              “Hey, wait up!” he called to her and he caught her wrist on the stairs.

              “Park, I just want to go.”

              “Wait, can’t I just see you for a little bit?”

              “Park, my friend is trying to turn into a witch and she’s bringing up all these bad sprits and, don’t you know how dangerous that is? And she actually used it? My heart is beating a million miles an hour, I need to go fix it before it bursts or-or something!”

              “Sooji your heart isn’t going to explode, it can’t.”

              “I know it can’t logically, but that’s how it feels right now!” Sooji breathed hard, trying to catch her breath but it never felt like enough air was entering her lungs.

              “No, I mean your heart isn’t real! It can’t explode. It’s doing that because it’s preparing you for a fight! It’s preparing to change you. If you don’t calm it down, though, you could lose yourself, too, just like she did!”

              “What in the world are you talking about?” she looked at him in confusion.

              “Your heart isn’t real!” he spoke and it shocked Sooji that tears were forming in his eyes and she grew confused.

              “I don’t want to lose you.” His voice was growing louder. “Between Jisoo and Younghyun and- I just don’t see you anymore, Sooji! Don’t I mean anything? I’m sad that you didn’t even mention it to me you were coming today and you would have come and gone without even saying ‘hi’ to me.”

              “Park, I have to go.” She turned around but he grabbed her wrist again, but in his anger grabbed her with a hand of fire, burning her wrist badly.

              Sooji screamed, and in return sent a shockwave of dark through her body and it burned Park’s palm. Both of them stood stunned at the exchange but Sooji was the first to leave the scene, holding her wrist as she ran off. Park could only stare at his palm in shock.

              It wasn’t long after Sooji entered the hospital to treat the burn that Jisoo entered her room.

              “What… happened?” he huffed and puffed, out of breath from running.

              “I was burned.”

              “Burned?” he was confused.

              “I had an encounter with Jisung, my former roommate, and I got into a small argument with Park and he grabbed my wrist when he was angry and burned me.”

              “I’m gonna kill him.” Jisoo grit his teeth, “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to the museum, anyway? I’m supposed to go with you everywhere!”

              “I don’t want a babysitter, I wanted some time alone, especially since school just started again and I need to get myself back into school-mode.”

              “So, you went with Park?” his voice escalated.

              “Park works there!” Sooji yelled back, “And I was leaving like I was _told_ to do-”

              “They told you to leave?”

              “It was for my own good, Jisung wanted to kill me or something, I don’t know.” She shook her head. “Look, all I want is for my burn to get healed and for me to go home.”

              Jisoo was angry he fought with himself to go after Park, but stayed in the room with Sooji. It was later that she shut herself in her room to do work, and he fell asleep on the couch. Creeping around the house, Sooji saw that his eyes were shut and silently went to her room, retrieved her things and left the house.

              “If there’s one person who could tell me what Park was talking about, it’s Minseok.” She spoke to herself as she clutched her bag, clearscreen in tow. She had purposefully left behind her PA, in order for Jisoo to be unable to track her if he woke up before she returned.

 

              “It’s unusual for you to call me out like this.” Minseok placed his finger on the edge of his glass and circled around it, causing it to lightly hum.  “What’s on your mind?”

              “I need to ask you a question about Park.”

              “Oh, come on, three minutes into our date and you’re already talking about another man?” he huffed playfully. “But what’s got you so curious? Can’t you just ask him yourself?”

              Sooji rolled back her sleeve a bit to show the burn and Minseok leaned over the table to get a better look.

              “Is that from him? Oh, GC, now I’ve seen it all.” He huffed a laugh.

              “He got angry at me today, but while he was angry he said something that caught my attention.”

              “What was it?” he picked up his glass to take a drink.

              “He said my heart wasn’t real. What’s that about?”

              Minseok’s sip turned into a one-shot as he tried to avoid her question.

              “So, you _do_ know something about it.” She caught him.

              “Look, even if I _did_ know something about it, I’m not allowed to say anything. But that’s only if I _did_ know something, and I don’t.”

              “I’ll give you a kiss if you tell me.” She played into his hands.

              “Don’t tempt me.” He shook his head. “Your little tricks won’t work on me this time.”

              “Are you sure?” she pouted at him. “I just want to know what this is all about and if there _is_ something I’m supposed to know, then wouldn’t it be fair to tell me?”

              “Why are you even asking _me?_ Shouldn’t you be asking Hongbin? If he’s your regular doctor then he’s gotta know something by now.”

              As right as he was, she knew that Hongbin wouldn’t tell her, and would claim he was suddenly busy, but Minseok was never busy- in fact, it always seemed like he was never doing _anything_. He was the perfect target.

              “But I wanted to ask you because I like you the most.” She pouted again.

              “Don’t play me like this.” He whined, she was breaking him faster than she thought.

              “I’ll tell you what,” he smiled deviously, “you come back with me and then I’ll tell you what’s up.”

              “No.” Sooji shook her head and took his hand playfully, “If you tell me now _,_ wouldn’t I have an incentive to go with you?”

              “No, no, that’s not how this works.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I’m supposed to get what _I_ want, too, because I know you’ll ditch me once you get what you want.”

              Well, he wasn’t wrong. Sooji had no intentions of staying longer than she needed to. It was clear that Minseok wasn’t going to hand over the information easily, but she had no idea what other resources she had at hand that would even know what she was talking about.

              “Would there be anything in the library?” she asked.

              “You know, I actually don’t know. My father would know, though.”

              “What’s his price for a wish?”

              “My father will grant any wish for an eye.”

              “Does it have to be _my_ eye?”

              “Unless you have someone else’s eye hidden in your sleeve, no, it can’t be your eye.”

              “What if I gave him _your_ eye, then?”

              “He would throw it back at you and tell you to get the hell out.” he laughed. “He told me he won’t grant anything I ask for so I shouldn’t bother.

              “But it’s not you who’s doing the asking.”

              “Doesn’t matter. He won’t take my eye.”

              “Does it hurt?”

              “Sooji, my father isn’t going to rip out your eye.”

              “Why not?”

              “He won’t take it.”

              “ _Why not_?” her words were stern and realizing he had almost revealed the information he should not have, he kept his mouth shut, cursing himself in his mind. “ _Minseok_.”

              “It’s the same reason why I’m not allowed to say about your heart. I’m not allowed to tell you. As a matter of fact, maybe only one person is allowed to tell you. And that person isn’t me.”

              “Who?”

              Minseok was quiet for a minute and breathed out a deep sigh, thinking if he should tell her or not.

              “You know what,” he spoke before downing another shot, “I’ll tell you, but we have to go somewhere else, there are too many people here.”

              They paid for their drinks and Minseok took Sooji outside by the hand and put her into his vehicle.

              “Are we going somewhere?”

              “We’ll go back to the library, I’ll tell you there.” He spoke and in the dead of night, they arrived.

              The atmosphere was much different than when she had first arrived, it was dark and only the bright moonlight reflecting off of the snow outside gave light to the inside of the library. There were some folk who held lanterns- the ones who occupied bedrooms- to get around, but they seemed like ghosts in the dark.

              “We’ll go back upstairs to that scroll room, nobody will be there, and I can tell you.”

              “Is it really that much of a secret?”

              “Sooji, I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t.” his face was serious.

              Taking her by the wrist, he led her upstairs in the dark once more and closed the door behind them, locking it. The room was dark, but Minseok lit an ice crystal for the time being, placing it on the table in the center of the room.

              “Sooji,” he motioned for her to sit next to him and she could hear his breathing getting heavy, was he nervous? “Sooji, my father isn’t allowed to take my eye because I’m an Engel’s Child.”

              “Is that so much of a secret, though? Everybody knows you’re his child.”

              “Sooji,” he spoke even quieter, and she leaned in to listen, “he doesn’t take the eyes of Engel Children.”

              Minseok grew nervous in an instant, and began to twitch his leg as if he was waiting for something bad to happen to him. His eyes darted his way and that and he began to fidget his fingers.

              “We gotta go soon.” He spoke in a hurried voice.

              “What does this have to do with my heart?”

              “Shush!” Minseok grew extremely worried and looked as if he was witnessing his own death- he grew pale and began to break out in a sweat, and held his hand over Sooji’s mouth.

              A knock came at the door and the handle slowly turned. Even though it had been locked behind them, a tall Glacies entered the room freely with a sullen expression on his face. Sooji began to shake herself. His presence was cold and she didn’t know if she was shaking from fear or from the sudden temperature shift.

              “Fuyu,” the Engel called him by his formal name and the boy began to weep, “did my ears deceive me?”

              “Father, father, please!” the boy begged and Sooji began to wonder how serious the situation was.

              “Were you two planning on having sex in this room?”

              Sooji was thrown off-guard and the sobbing boy behind her seemed to huff in confusion.

              “You caught us, sir.” Sooji said nonchalantly, “I’m ashamed.”

              “You better be, I could hear the echoes coming from this room from the first floor. At least pick a better place. I’m at least a little relieved that it’s you two, though, and not some strangers. This is also a room full of important documents, what a shame it would have been if you knocked them over.”

              “W-what?” Minseok was still crying.

              “Will you stop crying? This isn’t the first time I caught you, either.”

              “Father!” Minseok wailed but the Engel only laughed.

              “Just go to your own room, it’s probably more comfortable for her there, though I’m sure she wouldn’t want to continue after being embarrassed by me. Sorry, my son.” The Engel smiled as he left.

              Sooji muffled her laugh and Minseok was trying to stop himself from crying, but he was too shaken up to stop them as they froze on his cheeks. Sooji broke them off with a giggle.

              “Well that was an adventure.”

              “I saw my life flash before my eyes. I seriously thought I was going to die.”

              “Well it’s over. I’ll go home now, though, if you don’t mind.”

              “Sure, we can get you home.”

              “I’ll go, you stay here.” She gave a laugh and kissed his forehead lightly.

              He gasped, “Your kiss is warm.”

              “Thank you.” She smiled and turned the handle to leave the room, but it was locked. “The key, please!”

              “Oh, right!”

              “Your father can unlock doors, too?”

              “Sometimes I wonder if he does or if he forces it open somehow with ice.” He laughed and broke away his icicle tears.

             

              As Sooji left, Minseok walked to his room where outside the door, Glacies was waiting with a sullen expression on his face. When Minseok got close, his father shook his head and sighed.

              “Did you tell her?”

              “No, sir. Not directly.”

              “You know that we’re not supposed to reveal that to her, only her father is.”

              “Yes, sir.”

              “And you know that telling her can lead to bad consequences if not done at the right time, not to mention how many other ears were listening in on your conversation.”

              “Were there others?”

              “There will always be others.” His father spoke, “How do you think I know?”

              “I- I don’t know. I know that room doesn’t echo at all.”

              “That is correct. I know because the more aware of her situation she is, he stronger the pull is from her heart. It begs to be used, and the more she works it up and activates it, the harder it will be for her to suppress.”

              “But wouldn’t her knowing about it help her be able to stop it?”

              “In a way, yes, but that’s still not for us to decide. We all made a promise and you broke it, and tomorrow I want you to go to Noctis and tell him what you did.”

              “Yes, sir.”

              “Now go to bed.”

              “Yes, sir.” Minseok held his head down in shame and his father patted his shoulder before leaving the area, retreating to his own room.


	12. CODE: THE NINE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ** UNEDITED AGAIN**

              It was the middle of the afternoon and the atmosphere was peaceful, and Noctis was busy reading in his study when once more a knock came at his door. He sighed, not wanting to be bothered but not wanting to be rude to the person behind the door.

              “Come in.” he gently closed the book that sat at his desk with a sigh.

              “Thank you.” They responded as they pushed open the door and the sound of the voice put a smile on his face. Both Glacies and his son, Minseok, entered the door.

              “What brings you here, and in person?” he was pleasantly surprised to see the both of them.

              “My son has some bad news to share with you.” Glacies spoke with such grace that it almost seemed like a joke but the Engel listened to the boy nonetheless.

              “Please, have a seat, both of you.” Noctis stood and gestured to the seats in front of him. 

              “Sir, I’m really sorry.” Minseok held his head down in shame and his hesitation with his words generated a small worry in Noctis. “I’m so, so sorry, sir I…”

              “What is it?” Noctis’ voice was stern and it hit the boy hard.

              “I accidentally told Sooji who she was. I don’t know if she picked up on it, but I may have revealed the secret.”

              Noctis was silent and it seemed like the room was growing darker with every passing second that even Glacies grew uncomfortable. His voice was calm, however, as he asked Minseok further questions, but the darkness grew.

              “What is it that you said to her?”

              “I, uh, I told her that my father doesn’t take the eyes of Engel Children. That was after I was telling her that my father won’t take her eye.”

              “Why did she want a bargain with Glacies in the first place?” he looked at the other Engel, his eyes filled with many emotions at once.

              Glacies spoke in an ancient tongue that Minseok wasn’t well versed in- the language of the Engel- and to Noctis, said, “She was wishing for knowledge about herself. Do not blame my boy for his words.”

              “I won’t harm your boy for what’s my fault.”

              “There’s no reason to blame yourself, either.” Glacies shook his head.

              “I shouldn’t have kept it for so long. I just wanted to be ready when the time came but I guess I’ll have to tell her sooner rather than later.”

              “It won’t be easy, but my brother, I know you’ll do well.” Glacies spoke but doubted his own words and Noctis could sense it.

              “Thank you for your false hopes, but for now let me return to my work. Thank you for coming here to tell me. I appreciate it.”

              “Am I in trouble?” Minseok interjected and Noctis shook his head, though the darkness grew darker and it worried the boy.

              “You are not in trouble, but if you can’t hold your tongue, perhaps I can have my first child plant.” He smirked and even his father laughed, but Minseok was shaking in his seat.

 

              The two left Noctis in peace once more and as he tried to gather his thoughts in his now pitch-black room, a message came for him and it read itself aloud: “Wonpil has decided to take the courses at the Night Crawler’s Academy.” At last, a piece of good news.

              “Send my congratulations on his decision, and prepare everything for his trip.” He spoke into the void and it was done for him.

 

 

              In the meanwhile, Noctis’ brother Lucis was having problems of his own. His child, Lucifer, was going on rampages more often these days and he found it difficult to control him.

              “Ang- Lucifer!” Lucis yelled at the boy who was screaming and crying. “Will you not calm down?”

              “No! I want to be tall! I want to be big again! Why am I such a small size this isn’t how I used to be? Why am I like this and why do you keep calling me Lucifer?”

              “Because that is your name! You are Lucifer! Son of Luci-”

              “Don’t lie to me anymore! I know who I am! I am Agathangelus, son of the Sun! I will destroy this cursed city for doing this to me starting with you!” He pointed at Lucis

              “Stop with this nonsense!” Lucis used his powers on the boy who calmed down and fell into a deep sleep and Lucis sighed, growing angry at the boy’s wild behavior.

              “Is everything alright, sir?” one of his servants entered the room once the commotion was over.

              “Lucifer is acting strangely these days, isn’t he?” Lucifer smiled, “I felt bad for having to put him to sleep, but until I can figure out why he’s acting like this, I think it’s for the best- and for the safety of all of my wonderful servants here.”

              The servant smiled and bowed at the gesture, informing him that he had a guest.

              “Who would it be?”

              “It appears to be on of the Daughters of Magnus.”

              The sound of the name alone made Lucis smile and he sprung up from his place and walked with haste towards the guest, who waited for him in the main entryway of the palace.

              “My, my, it has been a long time, hasn’t it, Narsha?”

              “Far too long, but please, let’s not be too formal. I have a little bit of time to spare and I came here for a reason.”

              “And what might that be?”

              “I found your missing Engel Crystal.”

              “Have you, now?” his smile was wide, and his grin was a bit sinister. “And to what do I owe this bit of information?”

              “I want the rest of the family back.”

              “All nine of you?” he was hesitant. “That would take a lot more power than I can give up right no-” Lucis stopped himself to think for a moment because he remembered Lucifer’s outrage. “Actually, it can be done quite quickly.

              “How soon?”

              “It can be done as soon as we step foot on the Goodnight Isles.”

              “Let’s go immediately.”

              “Allow me to grab Angelus.” Lucifer’s smile only grew wider as he retreated to where he came from.

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

 

              It was early in the morning when Sooji returned and the door opening startled Jisoo from his sleep and he sat up quickly from the couch, pointing his concealed weapon at Sooji and immediately put it down, dropping his shoulders and his harsh stance as well when he saw her exhausted face.

              “What are you doing back so late? And without telling me? Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

              “Yeah, worried enough to fall asleep.” She snickered as she retreated to her room quickly.

              “Where were you?”

              “House building.” She called before she closed the bathroom door behind her, and Jisoo could hear the water from the shower start up and he waited patiently for her to finish.

              “You look different though, did anything happen?” Jisoo stood with a huff and leaned against his room door while crossing his arms in front of his chest, “You’re _supposed_ to contact me when you’re going out, you know.”

              “I don’t want a babysitter, I told you. Yeah, sure, it’s understandable: it’s your job. You _do_ know that doesn’t mean stalking me everywhere I go.” She didn’t bother to look at him as she went into her room and he followed her up until the doorframe and stood in it.

              “It _does_ mean stalking you everywhere you go. I made a promise to your father and I intend to keep it.”

              The word ‘father’ struck a new note with her. After what Minseok told her, though his words still made no sense to her, there seemed to be something resonating within her. Too tired to get into it, though, she asked politely to be left alone in order to get some rest. Jisoo did as he was told and allowed her door to close properly with a click of the lock.

              “HM, please, could you alert me when if she leaves again?”

              “Yes, sir, I can do so.”

              “Why didn’t you tell me when she was leaving before, though? You know her father wants me to look after her.”

              “Sir, I was asked by Sooji not to tell you.”

              “For what reason?” Jisoo sat on the edge of his bed, mindlessly puffing his pillow as he spoke.

              “I believe it was a date, sir.”

              “A date?” Jisoo’s attention was caught by the neck, “With who?”

              “One Mr. Younghyun Kang.”

              Jisoo was quiet and his blood began to boil a bit but shook off the feelings opting instead for sleep.  He would have to deal with it later on. However, he was alerted by the HM in his sleep and woke up immediately.

              “Sooji’s having an episode.” HM said in a calm tone. “I can only hold her so much but she’s not waking up, it appears to be some kind of numbing nightmare about Jonghyun.”

              “Who?” Jisoo threw off his covers and ran to her room to find her wildly transforming into a skeletal creature and crying at the same time.

              “Her ex-boyfriend, Jonghyun.” The HM informed him.

              “Sooji!” he called to her, but seeing she didn’t respond he grabbed her hand away from HM’s hold and pulled her up from the bed.

              The HM propped her so she would sit up as Jisoo climbed into bed to embrace her and held her, reassuring her that it was Jisoo there and nobody else. It took an hour before Sooji calmed down enough to wake up from the sleep paralysis and to shake herself of the nightmare she was seeing, but she was still in her transformed state. Little by little, she transformed back into her regular state and was exhausted.

              “It’s okay,” Jisoo held her, “I’ll protect you just like I promised.”

              Sooji didn’t speak a word, but allowed herself to be embraced by him, and it seemed that his time studying compassion and movies of romance and relationships was paying off a little bit. It was refreshing to Sooji as well, because in front of her wasn’t the military babysitter that her father had assigned her, but a dear friend.

              As he held her closely, her crying stopped eventually and even though the sun was rising, HM had covered the windows, usually in order to allow Sooji to sleep in longer. In this case, HM knew Sooji’s instincts would be to forget everything and go to school to work through her problem by blocking it from her mind.

              “Sooji you’re okay.” Jisoo spoke calmly.

              “Jisoo,” she pulled back to look at him and he looked at her face, worn with tiredness and her eyes were still wet with tears, “Jisoo remember how you said that you thought you heard someone in the hospital that one time? And Park spoke about it, too- was it a girl’s voice?”

              Jisoo had thought she was asleep during their conversation and he froze to think about it for a moment and nodded. “It sounded just like you.”

              “I know who it was.” She looked even more exhausted as she took deep breaths in and out. “At least, I think I do.”

              “Who was it?”

              “I don’t exactly know, but I’m sure I can find out, especially if Park knows something.”

              “Can you tell me anything more?”

              “It was just a bad dream, but I want to ask questions anyway.”  

              “What was your dream about?” he soothed her more by brushing her hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. “Only if you want to tell me, though.”

              “I think I saw the end of the world. Or their plans or something. It was awful. Of course, it could just be a nightmare, but it just seemed so real. There were tons of people I knew and I was just watching them all die. I- there are things that are kind of hard to explain, but it was really startling.”

              “I’m sure it was just a dream.” He smiled at her, “Why not try to get some sleep and call Park when you wake up?”

              “I’ll probably call him now to get it off my chest. I want you to leave the room, though.”

              As much as Jisoo didn’t want to, he obliged and left the room, the door locking behind him. A thought passed his mind and asked the HM to locate the boy and found him at a local marketplace. Jisoo was out of the house faster than the snap of a finger.

 

              “Park,” a dreary-voiced Sooji called, “Park I have to ask you something important.”

              “What is it?” he looked like he either had been awake for three days straight or had been sleeping for the entire week- a mix between wide awake and ready-to-fall-asleep-and-delirious. “How come you look like you just went through hell?”

              “Park will you be absolutely honest with me if I ask you some questions?”

              “Anything, anything.” He was more concerned about her than about any question she could ask. “Do you want me to come over? I can be there quickly if you need me.”

              Sooji thought for a moment before giving a small nod.

              “We’ll stay connected until I arrive.” The video feed cut and she could see that his PA was sitting on his head like a pair of glasses, and she could see what he was seeing and he was throwing on a shirt and shuffling around to find his shoes.

              When he was inside of his vehicle and began to drive it, Sooji began to ask, “Park, you remember Jonghyun, right?”

              “Bastard Jonghyun or someone else?” Sooji could see he was a good driver and was very cautious about every little move he made inside the car.

              “The bastard.” She gave a little smirk.

              “Of course I remember him,” his voice was calm and sweet, “how could I forget someone who made you cry like that? I’ve always vowed if I saw him again I’d beat him for you.”

              “What do you know about him?” she asked in a similar tone back to him.

              “Excuse me?” was nearing her house.

              “Who was he, really?”

              She could tell by Park’s hesitation that he knew the answer she was looking for, and began again. “Well, Jonghyun, _that bastard **,**_ was someone that I had known for a little while, but what I didn’t know about him then, I found out a little later like the rest of us.”

              “Us?”

              “A few of the Engel Children and I.”

 

 

 

 

              “Younghyun, good morning.” Jisoo said sternly to the boy who was a bit surprised to see him at the same place he was so early in the morning.

              “What a surprise getting a visit from you, Jisoo.” The boy replied with an unenthusiastic yawn, “What can I do for you? You here for the early morning rush, too?”

              “You had a date with Sooji yesterday, so I wanted to ask something about what happened during the da-”

              “Oh, I’m sorry that I upset you, Sooji’s Dad, I guess I really should have told you that I was taking her on a date yesterday.” Younghyun looked directly into Jisoo’s eyes, “But then again you, _aren’t_ , Sooji’s dad so it would be none of your business, isn’t that right?”

              “I’m not here to ask you what happened on the date, I’m not interested in the details of your failing love life,” Jisoo shot back, “I’m interested in knowing if you mentioned her ex-boyfriend at all?”

              “Why?” Younghyun wasn’t too enthusiastic about Jisoo’s remark and his face showed it.

              “She woke up screaming in fear of Jonghyun, whom I was told was her ex. So, I’m wondering if you asked her anything about it, or if it’s an isolated incident.”

              “Yeah, I asked her about him.”

              “You shouldn’t be prying into her life, especially bringing back the past she wants to forget so much.”

              “How was I supposed to know it’s going to trigger something? She could have told me not to ask, too! She’s the one who told me everything, besides,” the boy turned his attention to the wares of the stall in front of him, picking up a strange looking fruit and observing it, “that’s what you do when you like someone, you get to know them.” Younghyun was yelling in a whisper’s tone, as to not interrupt any of the other market buyers.

              “Funny, I could have said that’s what an interrogation sounds like.” Jisoo’s anger projected through his words, “I don’t want you asking her questions like that anymore.”

              “How petty can you be, calling me and telling me what to do and what not to do?”

              “It’s my job to protect Sooji.”

              “You can’t protect everything about her- she’s her own person too. If you wanted nothing to happen you should have put her in a box, but since she’s who she is, that wouldn’t have run over well with her father, I’m sure. Your job is to protect her from harm, and not from anything else. It didn’t say protect her so that nothing happens, because then nothing would ever happen to her.”

              “How would you know?”

              “You know why I know! I know you’ve searched into my files and looked at who I was! I was doing _your_ job before you came along.” Younghyun was getting angry and he was clenching his fists. “I was _built- born-_ for this job, you were just trained for it.”

              “If you had been built so well then why did you fail so quickly?” Jisoo’s mouth was running more than he wanted it to, as if it wasn’t him speaking.

              Younghyun froze for a moment and looked away from the boy standing in his path, and let out a deep exhale.

              “I was trying to do things my own way and I got caught up.” He confessed, “Listen, we shouldn’t be arguing out in the open like this, she’s already caught wind.”

              “Who?” Jisoo was curious.

              “M300. It’s the same girl who was in the apartment not too long ago.”

              “How do you-”

              “Noctis built me for a reason, it doesn’t mean I’m completely useless now that you’re in the picture.”

              “Why do they call her M300?”

              “I’ll send you all the files to the home HM, you need to get out of here and go home.”

              Jisoo was turned around by the boy and pushed a little forward in the direction from where he came, but when Jisoo looked over his shoulder to say something more, Younghyun had vanished. Growing nervous, he took his personal hoverbike back to the apartment.

 

              “Sooji,” Jisoo knocked at her bedroom door, “Sooji, you know that Younghyun likes you, right?”

              The door opened and he found Park sitting on the other side of the headboard from her hugging his knees, who spoke first and sarcastically replied, “I had no idea, wow, this is real news to everybody.”

              “Stop.” Sooji laughed and lightly hit his shoulder. “It’s true, though, I know.”

              “When did he get here?” Jisoo threw his words into the room as his eyes darted this way and that, looking at drawings Sooji made of what he assumed were scenes from her nightmare.

              “Shortly after you left.” Park replied. “I said hello but you were too focused on something. You looked angry, everything okay?”

              “Everything is… fine.” Jisoo huffed. “It’s just not what I expected when you said you were calling Park. Did you find anything out?”

              “Yeah, I found out quite a bit more than I bargained for.” She laughed.

              “Well, I hope it’s good.” Jisoo turned to leave the room, “Did HM make you anything to eat or should I go to the market and get something for you?”

              “I brought her something,” Park smiled, “I left yours on your desk for you.”

              “Oh,” he was taken back a bit by the boy’s generosity, “thank you.”

              “I hope you like it, I wasn’t sure what you eat so I got you a little bit of everything.”

              “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” He nodded as he left the room. When he opened the door, he found three containers on his desk and looking at the descriptions on each one and he was surprised- it must have cost a lot judging by the things inside. Jisoo could only imagine what kind of foods he prepared for Sooji if this is what he prepared for him.

              Looking at his messages, Jisoo had received one from Younghyun and when he opened the file, it exploded with information and there was even a voice message. Opening it first, he listened intently to his instructions- it sounded like Younghyun was running:   

              “Jisoo I’ve sent you everything,” he huffed and puffed, “everything I have you now have, and those are the only files left, I’m destroying mine. Please take good care of them okay?” he paused for a moment and Jisoo could hear yelling, “Jisoo, listen to me, M301 is Jonghyun, you have to make sure that you remember that!”

              “M301?” Jisoo was confused and when he spoke the name, the files from Younghyun’s collection reorganized itself and his data came up and he spent the entire night reading about all of the different people labeled M300 through M308, memorizing everything he could about them, what they do, and what their goal is. There were a lot of gaps in his information that he could see, such as motives, end goals, who they worked for or even how they exist in this world again.

              “Sooji,” Jisoo stood from his desk, the clearscreen with all of the information displayed in his hand, “I want to show you something.” He knocked on the door and was allowed in.

              “What is it?” she asked and he held out the clearscreen for her, which projected the information larger to enable her to see it.

              “Do you recognize any of these people?”

              She froze and Park’s eyes grew a little wide as he looked upon the nine faces on the screen in front of him.


	13. CODE:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *** Honestly, I feel like these chapters are getting worse because of the lack of editing but please hold on while I finish this! I will edit it its entirety once it's done! IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR CONGRATS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG OR CONFUSING WITH WHAT I'M WRITING. ***

              It had been a week since anyone heard from Younghyun, and all his friends including Sooji grew anxious about it, even alerting the police, though he was still missing. It caused unrest within their friends group, and each day they waited patiently, nervously, for some kind of answer on his location- or if he was even alive.

              Sooji had agreed to allow Jisoo to follow her to her classes, but due to the professors, he was only allowed to sit outside of the rooms. He didn’t mind, as long as he could keep an eye out on her in some way. Park was in on the idea as well, and would look after her during some of the time as well, so Jisoo could have a break and sleep a little, possibly, but it was during one of those resting breaks that it all went wrong.

              While Jisoo slept in the corner of the room, who would pay them an untimely visit but Sooji’s ex-boyfriend Jonghyun. He was around the same height as Sooji, but impressively built. He carried himself in a way that oozed attraction and he didn’t mind who it came from- men, women, whomever- he was interested in everybody as much as they were interested in him. Sooji didn’t notice him enter the room at first, concentrating too much on her work, but I was Park who looked up and let out a little gasp that had caught Sooji’s ears. When she glanced him from her desk, immediately her heart began to race and she froze where she stood.

              “What a surprise I find you here.” He spoke smoothly with a light chuckle and all Sooji could do was watch as he walked slowly forward; behind him was a boy she recognized as one of the M-labeled people from the photographs Jisoo shared with her. “I was looking for you for a while.”

              “What do you want?” Sooji’s voice was dry from her nervousness, but she spoke with a dark confidence.

              “I came looking for you. You have something that we’d like.”

              “What could that possibly be?” she retorted, “You’d already taken everything when you left me.”

              “But I think I left behind something.” He snickered. “You.”

              “Don’t play coy, what do you want.”

              “It’s you.” He smiled and he took another step forward towards her.

              Park began to groan in pain and held his head and when she looked behind Jonghyun at the other boy, he was laughing a little.

              “Jisoo!” Park managed to yell out, “Jisoo!” Jisoo, however, did not wake up and Sooji looked over to see someone else covering his ears with a smirk.

              Sooji was frozen in fear and clutched her heart for it was racing too fast for her to handle and she was shaking from the adrenaline. Jonghyun had no problem lifting her and taking her away in her frozen state- she couldn’t even make a sound from her mouth or find a way to transform herself into something else, she was completely helpless.

              What Jonghyun had done in her past completely destroyed her and put her in a state of constant fear the minute she saw him, which had happened a few times on campus before, but with the help of Park she was able to recover from her panicked state. Now, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen to her. Sooji blacked out from her panic attack and when she woke she was in a new room laying on the floor next to a post with chains on her wrists and ankles. The room was small, and everything was clean and white, the room itself was brightly lit from overhead lights and a voice greeted her as her eyes opened.

              “Oh no, look what they did to you.” A voice spoke and she looked up, startled at the man. He was absolutely beautiful, and had long, white hair that fell to the ground around him. On him was a long, white robe that was ornately sewn, and she knew in that minute who he was: the Engel Lucis. “You poor thing, I should get you free.”

              A friendly smile greeted her eyes and he propped her up where she sat- his hands were cold on her shoulders even through her shirt. Looking around her, she could see a few more posts in the room, and right next to her was Younghyun who looked beat up, bruised and bloody.

              “I know, your friend looks so damaged. We’ll get all of you out of here soon enough.” He spoke with a kind smile.

              Sooji rubbed her eyes and looked around her: Younghyun, four empty posts, a young boy she didn’t recognize, and to her left, Dowoon, who was not in chains.

              “Dowoon?” she called out.

              “Yes, Dowoon is a dear friend of mine. He works for me, don’t you know?”

              “I work for Soohyuk, sir.”

              “And Soohyuk?” Lucis looked at the boy.

              “Works… for you.” Dowoon hung his head.

              “Soohyuk?” Sooji looked around to see a disgruntled Soohyuk standing behind the post.

              “Dear Sooji, you have something of mine that I’ve wanted for a long time.” Lucis started and made a motion with his hand and her chains rose up, causing her to stand with her hands above her head. 

              “What is it?”

              Lucis laughed, “You have the Engel’s Crystal, of course.”

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

              “Don’t play with me.” His voice became a little sinister and Sooji grew nervous. “Inside of you lays a Crystal that belongs to me and I’d like to have it.”

              “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said and Lucis motioned with his other hand, and Younghyun’s chains were raised up to be the same as hers, but he was still either unconscious or deep in sleep.

              “What do you want with Younghyun, though?”

              “That’s to help me get the crystal.” He said, “But we can do it the easy way, first. I need you to transform for me.”

              “I- I don’t know how to transform, it just happens.”  Sooji confessed.

              “Lucis, there are other ways to do this.” Soohyuk’s deep voice spoke from behind her, but the look on Lucis’ face told her that he didn’t care about what he was saying.

              Before her eyes, Lucis drew back his sleeve and his fingers began to turn into sharpened claws and she grew nervous as he drew his hand closer to her chest, and the look in his eye told her that he wasn’t going to stop.

              “Lucis, stop.” Dowoon put himself in front of Sooji and she could see he was nervous. “This wasn’t your plan.”

              “Get out of my way, you pathetic waste of a life.” He pushed the boy out of the way with a mere brush of his hand.

              “Lucis!” Soohyuk yelled but the Engel thrust his claw into Sooji’s chest, trying to reach her heart, but the Crystal was putting a protective shield around itself and preventing him from touching it, meanwhile Sooji’s world was growing soundless and dark. Her blood had spilled all over the Engel’s robe, and the floor and she began to gasp for air.

              “Tell me, Sooji, will you transform, now?” Lucis snarled and she could see smoke coming from his mouth as he growled.

              “I-” she gasped, “I don’t know how.”

              “Perhaps _this_ will refresh your memory.” He took a step to his left, and thrust his claw into Younghyun’s chest, pulling from him the boy’s beating heart like a fruit from a tree.

              The hole in Sooji’s chest reformed in an instant, and in some otherworldly grumble of a voice, Sooji yelled, “Don’t you touch him!” Black and purple thunderbolts from the depths of space cashed into the room and it called forth Noctis, who appeared on the site.

              “Take the boys.” Noctis yelled as he appeared, and covered his brother from the blast of Sooji’s transformation.

              “You idiot.” Noctis said as he covered his brother who looked as if he was going mad himself, having re-heard the words of eons ago. Noctis held his brother’s head and used dark matter to knock him out for the time being.

 

 

               It had happened when Noctis and Lucis were both millennia younger, mere youths in the Engel world, when Magnus had begun to go crazy with ideas of ruling the world for himself. Noctis and Lucis’ brother Agathangelus had already been dead by this time, and the two of them ruled their kingdom equally. They gathered their armies to fight Magnus’ army, and Noctis was the first to arrive at the battlefield, having been promised that Lucis would join after. Midway through the battle, Noctis noticed that Lucis’ men were fighting against his alongside Magnus’ men.

              “What’s the meaning of this?” Noctis confronted his brother who was walking amongst the soldiers on the field but Noctis paused when he saw in his brother’s tight grip, his own child.

              “Brother, you were always naïve.” Lucis spoke calmly as the young boy struggled to get out of his grip, crying in pain.

              Noctis couldn’t take another breath, for right after Lucis finished his words, he cut the boy’s head off garnishing the same reaction from him as Sooji had done: black and purple thunder crashed from the void of space onto the earth, and Noctis transforms into the Crystal Dragon, going after Lucis until he dropped his child’s head into the forest and Noctis would rather have caught it than killed his brother. Noctis had been found by Soohyuk, his dear mortal friend at the time, still in his bone dragon form and he had been lying in the dirt and mud crying and it’s clear that he’s been flailing about due to the nearby destruction. Lucis had sent Soohyuk, who had some powers being what is now a modern-day Nameless, to wipe his memory of any accounts and bring him home, also implanting false memories of their mother handing Lucis the throne, and then to bring Noctis elsewhere.  Soohyuk never goes through with Lucis’ plan, and just helps Noctis out of his dragon state. When he turns back into his former self, he has the Engel Crystal in hand, though it should have shattered from the event and, understandably, he cannot stop crying for the loss of his son. Soohyuk comforts him and allows him to sleep there in the forest, unbeknownst to him, guarded by Terra’s golden stags who regularly protect the forest intself. Soohyuk has such a deep sadness for his friend Noctis that he ends up crying as well for a little while he is asleep. For his kindness, Noctis gifted him and turned him into the first Night Crawler, since he had earlier found out his friend was dying from disease. The gift would cure the illness and also help him live forever alongside him as his best friend.

 

              Sooji, now, was following closely behind Soohyuk who was flying as fast as he could north, towards the forest with Younghyun under one arm and Dowoon under the other.

              “Throw me down!” Dowoon said, “Let me go I can create a net!”

              “Are you sure?”

              “Let me try!”

              Soohyuk did as Dowoon asked and let the boy go, who created a time net to try and stop Sooji’s dragon form, but she broke it immediately upon contact and continued to pursue Soohyuk.

 

              “Terra!” a great voice boomed across the entire forest- it was Noctis- “Terra, I ask you for help!”

              From the forest came galloping the same two golden stag who protected Soohyuk from years ago, and stood together between Soohyuk and the dragon-formed girl, who was still enraged beyond negotiations. They fought hard, but both Noctis and Soohyuk felt a small fear when they heard a crack- the golden stag’s horns were broken quickly but it was then that something else came out of the forest that Noctis hadn’t seen in the longest of times.

              Terra, guardian of the forest, appeared in her own Crystal form, which was different for every Engel Crystal. The lower half of her body were the bones of a big cat, while the upper half of her torso was a human skeleton, wrapped in bandages like a mummy. A staff was in her right hand. Like Sooji, her impressive height mirrored that of the forests tallest trees, and she stood in the way of Sooji, blocking Soohyuk and Younghyun’s body.

              Sooji fought hard against Terra, wailing and crying the entire time, but Terra was far stronger and in more of a right mind than Sooji, and the fight was over quickly. Soohyuk returned to the ground and set Younghyun down on a bed of moss in front of Sooji, who, in her bone form, began to cry tears, and like Noctis before her all of that time, failed about the ground and wailed for his dead body.

              Terra transformed into her Engel form once more, and looked upon both the boy and Sooji with compassion, feeling bad for the repeat of events.

              “Where is your brother, I sense this is his doing?”

              “I left him.” Noctis spoke and the Engel could see that he had tears streaming down his stern face.

              “Noctis, it’s not safe to have your brother around.” She shook her head and took a big inhale, “If only Angelus was here.”

              “Angelus is here.”

              “Excuse me?”

              “I have to bring a call upon the counsel.”

              “I will help you.” Terra rose her staff into the air, and it formed a beam of light that reached as far as the eyes could tell.

              “We need to get her out of here, first, she cannot remain here.”

              “Sooji.” Noctis spoke calmly as he approached the flailing dragon- without the Crystal for himself, he was out-powered by her.

              “Noctis, you go, take this boy to Hongbin. I will bring her with me.” Soohyuk offered.

              “I cannot leave my second child.” Nocti’s eyes were full of tears, and Terra put her hand on his hand.

              “Sooji.” Soohyuk’s voice called to her, but she did not respond as Noctis had done before.

              “We do not have an Anima this time,” Terra spoke calmly to Noctis, “we cannot save this boy, as we could not save your son.”

              “We have an Anima.”

              “Is she in hiding?”

              “ _He,_ he is on his way.” Noctis’s breaths stuttered as he lamented.

 

              When Hongbin arrived on the scene, he was startled at the sight of everything: a large dragon made of bones who had cried itself into a growing lake, Terra and Noctis, as well as Soohyuk beside a dead Younghyun.

              “Noctis, sir, I don’t mean to be rude but what could I possibly do in this situation?”

              “Hongbin, it’s time to show your true self.”

              “I am just a healer, sir, I can’t fix a dead man. I can’t fix this dragon, I-”

              “Hongbin.” Noctis’ face looked like he himself had died, “You are Anima. Surely you must have figured that out a long time ago. No other healer has the vast expanse of powers that you do.”

              Hongbin froze.

              “Anima, it’s been a long time.” Terra smiled at him.

              “This can’t be true.” Hongbin shook his head.

              “Try it for yourself if you don’t believe me.” Noctis gestured towards Younghyun, who, by all means, was dead by the looks of it, but his color wasn’t as pallid as he expected, especially after all this time.

              “I’ve been holding him in a time warp. Time will not touch him until you do, since only Engels can break its strength.”

              It clicked for Hongbin- that’s why Noctis looked so drained, he had used what power he had to hold Younghyun in that state for all this time. Looking at his friend laying on the ground, he felt his hands shaking, and his knees began to buckle.

              “Get up, Anima!” Noctis commanded, “Show your true strength.”

              Hongbin slowly walked himself to Younghyun and knelt beside him, looking at the immense damage that had been done.

              He turned behind him when he felt an immense presence, and saw that the other Engels had begun to gather in this place, Lympha had arrived first, followed by Glacies and Ignis who rode on great beasts that floated on the air that looked similar to Sooji. Aura and her brother Caelum came after them riding upon the clouds and close behind was Procella escorting Sonus in a thunderous chariot.  

              “We are only missing Lucis and Magnus.” Terra smiled.

              “And Anima.” Glacies spoke.

              “No, we have found our Anima.” She gestured lightly to Hongbin who was still observing Younghyun.

             

              “Should we start the counsel, then?” Ignis crossed his arms, “I don’t like to be kept waiting, and besides, we’ve had meetings without Anima for so long, what’s one more?”

              “Please, start without me, I hardly know what is protocol.” Hongbin turned around to look at them, trembling at the sight of them all together.

              “If that is your official wish, we can proceed into my gardens.” Terra offered. “I trust that your friend,” she looked at Soohyuk, “will watch Sooji in the time being?”

              Noctis looked at Soohyuk who nodded and the Engel left with the others.

 

              Remember what had happened to Noctis, he repeated his steps as he did in the past. Though the circumstances were a bit different, he tried his best. He waded in the water until he was chest deep, and stood beside the dragon’s head.

              “Sooji.” He called to her. “Sooji I know you can hear me, will you look at me?”

              The dragon did not move.

              “Sooji, look at me.” He spoke with a stern voice and he dragon moved its head to look at the Night Crawler Lord, the wave from the movement, causing Soohyuk to lose his footing a bit.

              “Sooji I’m going to tell you a story, and I only ask that you listen to me.”

               

 

 

 

 

              Jisoo, having heard the news, was panting and running from his vehicle, which he left in the middle of the roadway, into the hospital. After discovering which room Sooji was in, he opened the door quickly and froze when he saw her laying there, bandaged heavily. There was only one person in the room, and it was Soohyuk.

              “I’m glad that you’re here.” He stood from his seat, looking defeated and tired. “Will you watch her?”

              “With my life.” Jisoo spoke formally, as if Soohyuk was his commanding officer.

              “I will only be gone for a moment, I will return.” He nodded.  “Your friend Younghyun is in the operating room right now. I don’t know if he’ll make it.”

              “What happened?” Jisoo asked the man.

              “I think you will learn soon.” Was Soohyuk’s answer before he left the hospital.

 

 

              “So, you created this girl for selfish reasons?” Ignis wasn’t giving any room for Noctis to breathe in the conversation as he fired question after question at him.

              “No!” Noctis protested.

              “Then what was her purpose? Other than to harbor the crystal in order to hide it from Lucis and bring back your brother.”

              “That was her purpose in the beginning, I thought I could be okay with –”

              “With sacrificing her for the sake of your dead brother?”

              “Angelus is not dead!” Noctis grit his teeth as he yelled, “Angelus is alive!”

              “Even if he were alive, Noctis, creating an Engel Child and then having to kill them for the sake of an Engel?” Glacies calmly asked.

              “Where were we when this plan was thought out?” Ignis spat once more, “Did you even consider asking the counsel to help you? I’m beginning to wonder if you deserve the title of Engelem.”

              “Ignis,” Procella interrupted, “It’s not the time to question his authority, we are questioning his creation of this girl.”

              “I don’t think _you_ should be the one to talk, Procella.” Ignis’ temper had flashed a bit before he blew her off to ask another question to Noctis. The Engel began to quarrel amongst themselves, standing in their seats and shouting.

              “That is enough.” A frail, deep voice called, and with a thwack of his cane to the ground, Sonus commanded attention from the Engel, who quieted and turned to look at him.

              “You are all acting like your parents had not come before you and made decisions that were of the same manner. You are acting like _you_ have never acted in the same way. Ignis, since you have been throwing stones, what about your two sons? Did they not have to die by your own hand for a righteous cause? Did Magnus’ nine children not have to die for a cause? Did my own children not have to die at my own hand because of something that we believed in? It is unfortunate that you must remember that Noctis and Lucis had another brother besides Angelus who died at the hands of their father, but in doing so passed his abilities onto Angelus, and by his partial death, split those powers amongst Noctis and Lucis? Or Anima, who died for the sake of you all? You are surely acting your own age, and while I cannot see you, I can feel your hearts. They all weep, but now is not the time to retaliate.” Sonus held his cane tightly as he stood from his chair. “If any of you have done no wrong, then please say the next word.”

              The Engel felt ashamed, having accused Noctis of his wrongdoing when Sonus was right- they each had done similar crimes in their lifetime, as did their parents before them.

              “We now must make a choice, but it is not up to us. This girl must be told the complete truth, and then, being an Engel’s true child, must make the decision for herself.”


	14. CODE: BROKEN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Think of it as a rough first draft. That only means it can get better from here, right? hahah... right?

              Lucis awoke to the young Lucifer holding him by the collar of his robes, shaking him violently.

              “You have to get up!” the boy was saying, “Get up, Lucis, get up!”

              The basement where he had been was partially collapsed on one side, the exit hole from Sooji’s transformation was big but it wasn’t destructive and he was grateful to not have been buried underneath the rubble.

              “Wh-what are you yelling about?” Lucis was confused, having been knocked out for some time. 

              Listening further to Lucifer’s rambling, he could tell that someone was feeing him ideas, and it grew into a dangerous situation for him. The more that he remembered about himself, the angrier he would become, especially in his small size.

              “Have a nice sleep?” a woman’s voice called from the other side of the room and Lucis looked to find one of Magnus’ Nightmare Children leaning against the wall.

              “Narsha.” He greeted, “I this your doing?” he gestured towards Lucifer as he pulled the angry boy’s grip off of his robes.

              “I don’t deal in wrath, that’s Lu.”

              Luhan. Lucis had met him a long time ago, and he is remembered among the Engels as the last to had been thrown back into the rift. Luhan, who had also been turned into a half-goat boy by a rogue witch (whom are still hunted today), had been friends with Ignis’ son, which had spared his life.

              “How many of your brothers and sisters are still missing?” Lucis brushed himself off. “With Ange- Lucifer regaining his strength, we can get them all back for you.”

              “Oh, so it _is_ Lucifer here that can open the rift and not you?”

              “I don’t have that kind of power since it was divided between my brother and I. My father did that on purpose so neither one of us could hold all of the power amongst the Engel.”

              “Then, we really have no need for you, do we, uncle?”

              “Of course you do, without me, he would return to his true form, and that would spell the end of all of you.”

              “How so?” she didn’t sound convinced, and placed her arms across her chest.

              “The further away from me he is, the weaker the curse that is placed on him is,” he spoke and it was clear that Lucifer was becoming more frustrated at his words, “so the closer he stays to me, the better of you are.”

              “I have a curse placed on me? No wonder I’m so short!”

              “You are short because you are still growing, my son. The curse is so you don’t harm yourself with overusing your powers.” Lucis lied.

              “Let’s hurry up, then,” Narsha spoke, “I don’t want to keep my family waiting, especially father.”

              “Why do I have to go if I don’t want to?” Lucifer spoke up as he was being dragged towards the vehicle.

              “If you come with us now, I’ll lift your curse and you can return to your former self.”

              Hesitantly, the boy agreed and Lucis kept Lucifer close beside him and they set out to the far away Goodnight Isles.

             

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

              Sooji awoke to a white room with just Park in it.

              “Good morning.” He sounded nervous and rubbed his hands together. “How do you feel?”

              “Park, just give it to me straight, what happened? I feel like I got hit by a moving vehicle and dragged for miles in the dirt and the mud- and _then_ drowned.”

              “Well… I can answer that but only if you’re feeling good enough to get out of that bed!” he was enthusiastic and prayed within his own mind that she wouldn’t get up.

              “I can try, but it’d be nice if you told me what’s going on, first.”

              “Sooji, I promise I’ll tell you. I swear on my life.” He cursed himself under his breath.

              “On your life? Oh, I see.” She smiled groggily. “That serious, huh?”

              “Sooji, this is one of those times where I wish you would just take me seriously from the get-go. Let me ask, then, what do you remember?”

              “I remember,” she thought hard, “falling asleep in the architecture room with you and Jisoo. Did I transform again?”

              “Yeah, yeah, that’s… that definitely happened.”

              “Oh no,” she whined, “how much school did I miss?”

              “Right now, it’s been about two weeks since that happened.”

              “Two weeks?” she groaned, “I missed so much!”

              “You won’t be thinking about school when I tell you about it.” He looked down, “I wanted to be the one to tell you so if you got mad you could hit me instead of someone else.”

              “What about taking me there in a chair?”

              “Yeah, I can do that,” he nodded and stood, “Let me go get you one.”

              Excusing himself, Sooji was alone. She inhaled deeply and held her breath for a minute before exhaling- she remembered everything and had lied to Park about it; it seemed to put him at ease so there was no reason to alarm him. She pulled her shirt forward and looked at the place where Lucis had ripped a hole into her, and there was only light scarring down the center of her torso.

              “Wow, Hongbin did a great job.” She said with a light bit of laughter in her voice, still unbelieving of what happened to her.

              It was as if on cue, he entered the room, a clearscreen in hand.

              “The monitor told me you were awake so I came to check on you myself.” His smile beamed, “How are you feeling?”

              Sooji shrugged, “Mentally or physically?”

              Hongbin nodded, for he understood. “You recovered well on your own, I hardly did a thing.”

              “I did this?” she pointed to her chest.

              “Yes, it appears your transformation not only healed that large wound, but everything seems to be in perfect order.”

              “And Younghyun?”

              “I’m doing my best.” He smiled once more but Sooji could see the death grip on the edges of the clearscreen, “He is recovering wonderfully, though, but he will take more time than you, since he is more mortal than you are.” Hongbin nodded and Sooji followed his nods with her own. “It might take him a while to get his health back to a sustainable level.”

              “When can I see him?”

              “I’m not sure right now, perhaps in a few months.”

              “Months? That long?”

              “Yes, his heart was,” he gestured a pulling motion from his own chest, “I’m sure you remember.”

              “Yeah, I just sometimes wonder if I really want to remember.”

              “It’s understandable.” He nodded to her.

              Park interrupted their conversation by coming in with the chair he had gone to fetch and Hongbin looked at Park and then back at Sooji.

              “You are allowed to leave, you have clearance, but I will ask if you feel light-headed or anything please come right back. You’re in really good health despite the circumstances, that heart of yours is really something else.”

              Hongbin escorted Sooji into the chair and she thanked him for his work, and asked him to contact her if anything were to change with Younghyun’s condition.

              “Would you like to see him before you go?” he suddenly asked, as if he had changed his mind and she thought about it, looking up at him and nodding.

              Taking the handles of the chair, he pushed her down the hallways and onto a special floor that required a pass- Park followed behind closely. Through a few doors and finally in an area that was surrounded by glass. It resembled the museum- there he float in a large cylindrical vat of fluid and she saw a scar going down the front of his chest like hers.

              “So, he’ll stay in there for a while?” she asked.

              “At least for another month, then if he’s stable, he’ll move to a room where he’ll be monitored around the clock.” Hongbin explained, “But I’ve done what I can, and we’ll see if his body wants to hold together or give up.”

              “Since you’re, uh,” Park hesitated, “Anima, shouldn’t you be able to fix this?”

              “Being Anima does not guarantee life. It is life and death in the same. Just like any Engel, my powers are not a guarantee, they are powerful, yes, but I can only push his body as far as it wants to go. He has to handle the rest.” He explained while observing the boy in the fluid.

              Stretching out her hand, Hongbin pushed her chair a bit closer so she could touch it, “Get well, my friend. I’ll see you soon.”

              Park put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled.

              “Let’s go.” Sooji turned to look at Park, “You said you had something to show me?”

              He exhaled deeply and his words were a little shaky, “Yep, I have something to tell you.”

              He left the hospital and helped her into his hovercraft, and they took a long trip to the center of the city. Escorted out by the boy and into the chair once more, he brought Sooji to the museum and she was less than enthusiastic to visit. Down a long hallway and up to the tallest floor they could go, they exited and came upon another section that she had not seen before with information and short videos rolling everywhere she looked.           

              “There’s so much here! Did you prepare all of this?” she was excited and it made him smile.

              Sooji spent a while reading the information on the screens and as she continued on down the hall in her chair, her smile faded and she became more serious. When she reached the end, there was a large diagram that had been professionally drawn out with a lot of steps, math equations and, oddly enough, a list of ingredients.

              “What the heck is this?” she murmured.

              “When you make something, it helps to have a list of parts and pieces that you need to create it.” Park scratched the back of his neck.

              Sooji read it:

              “Clay , for sculpting; two eyes made from the darkened amber of the S-Silk, Park what is this word?” she pointed to it.

              “Selukan.”

              “What the heck is that kind of tree?”

              “I did some research, as you know I do, and it was the tree of the forest that Noctis and Lucis grew up in.”

              “Do they exist anymore?”

              “Very few of them do.”

              “Alrighty then,” she continued, “two eyes made from the darkened amber of the Sel-U- _kan_ tree; blood made from a mixture in two parts: One part Engel blood, and one part dark matter fused together to create a lesser Engel blood; the Engel Crystal of Noctis, having been passed down from his mother, who commanded the moon and the land during the night time.”

              Sooji paused from reading to look at the diagrams once more, depicting what she assumed was the creation process of this person, and she began to piece it together who she would find at the end. She looked as moving drawings of Noctis created and molded this person out of clay, and then began to use that to form the body, then, once finished, aged it backwards until it was a mere infant and brought it to a house, where it would be taken care of by a woman. The woman looked beautiful, and she watched that as the child got older, the woman went away, and the child was on its own. The life process of that person sped up until it came to a certain point, and then the drawings began to repeat itself from the beginning.

              With a heavy sigh, Sooji asked, “The person at the end feels familiar.”

                             “Sooji,” he hesitated and rubbed the back of his head, “Sooji.”

              “Sooji,” the Engel Noctis spoke and Park jumped for he was started and scared, “a long time ago, my brother Lucis killed our older brother Agathangelus, and thus dividing his powers among Lucis and I. It was discovered sometime later that the method of my brother’s death was done incorrectly, thus sparing his life. Lucis put a curse on him, however, using the lives he sacrificed to perform the curse, it turned our brother into a small child, which Lucis claims is his son.

“In order to stop my older brother from growing too powerful, and possibly killing me too, I sought to hide the Engel Crystal from him. He had broken his and was denied another by the Engel Counsel for what he had done in the past, and I knew his next step was to ask for mine. In the following years, I… I built _you_ in order to house the Engel Crystal, which is now your heart. Piece by piece I created what I thought would be the perfect host.

              “Now, to ask this of you is a heavy burden to me, since this whole thing is my fault. The reason you and your friends are in danger was because of my decision to hide the crystal in you, which now serves as your source of life. The counsel has agreed that it is not my decision but yours.”

              “Decision?” Sooji questioned.

              Taking a deep breath in, “In order to save Angelus, and possibly to stop whatever plan Lucis has-”

              “He’s opening a rift.” Park spoke bluntly interrupted and he immediately broke into a sweat, fearing for his life because he stepped out of line.

              “Mulciber is correct.” Noctis complimented, “I shouldn’t hold back what I know: the power outage was a diversion, the explosion covered the opening of the rift for just enough time that three of Magnus’ Nightmare Children were able to enter our world from the void again. I wouldn’t doubt he’s using Angelus to repeat that, except he would probably plan on bringing them all back, including Magnus.”

              Sooji was confused. Rifts? Nightmare Children? Diversions?

              “I don’t understand.” She spoke up.

“Rightfully so, nobody does. The Nightmare Children pick and choose sides as they please, causing havoc for the fun of it. Why Lucis thinks he can earn their trust is beyond all of us.” Noctis spoke once more.

              “The Nightmare Children killed my brothers.” Park spoke to Sooji and she was in disbelief.

              “Sooji,” Noctis sighed, “What we have decided as a group, the Engel and I, and as your extended family, is that this decision should be your own.”

              “What decision is that?”

              “You can either live your life the way you wish, or you can s-” Noctis stopped his words and fought himself, “or you can sacrifice yourself to save my brother Angelus and put an end to this. That was your original creation purpose. To house the Crystal until the time of need, but since you are a somebody, living and breathing and thinking for your own, this decision can no longer be up to anybody but you.”

              Sooji grew pale and was stricken with fear. Voluntarily give up her life? She grew nervous. For sure, she thought, it would be a decision forced on her and she grew more and more scared.

              “You don’t have to make the decision now.” Park took her hand and squeezed it, “You don’t have to think about it at all.”

              “But a timely decision is a wise decision. If you give us the answer sooner rather than later, we can act upon whichever you chose.” Noctis nodded, “But please, I do not wish to pressure you. Either decision is good, and neither will be easy. I would weigh them about equal, but that choice is not for me to make.”

              Sooji took a deep breath in and exhaled as she squeezed Park’s hand.

              “Noctis, sir, if I may ask, what are you consequences of each choice?”

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

 

              “Lucifer look, we have arrived.” Lucis spoke with a smile. “You remember this place, don’t you?”

              “My name,” the boy huffed, “is _Angelus_.”

              “Look, we have a welcoming party waiting for us.” He smiled and the three Nightmare Children, Jonghyun, Narsha and Hyunseung were waiting for him at the beach with impatient smiles on their faces.

              “You took longer than expected.” Narsha spoke. “But I trust that the boy can open the rift fully this time. We want _all_ of the family to be back together.”

              “Of course,” Lucis smiled down at him, “do with him what you will.”

              “Come now, Angelus,” Narsha spoke while she held out her hand, “let me show you what true power looks like.” the boy followed her, opting not to take her hand and she turned around to look at Lucis at the beach, and with a smile a thought was put into his head.

              “I have a suggestion,” Lucis spoke as he followed behind them, “rather, a warning.”

              “And what type of warning is that?” Narsha asked as they walked further into the center of the island, overgrown with weeds and plants of all kinds. The sunlight was being blocked by the clouds and the atmosphere was dull in every direction.

              “I propose that rather than alerting all of the Engel to you, and spelling out your certain death, why not scatter yourselves once you leave the rift. Hide yourselves for a long time and come out when the Engel have lost interest in you.”

              “It’s not a bad idea.” Hyunseung spoke, “

              “I’m not that patient.” Narsha snapped back.

              “I think it would be wise for you to listen to me, especially as your superior.”

              “Engel or not, I _don’t_ have to listen to anybody other than our domain master. And _that’s_ me.”

              “You?”

              “Ever since Magnus died, the role was passed on to me.”

              “So, you’re the new Magnus? Interesting.” Lucis smirked. “Then, as your elder.”

              “Listen, old man, I already said I don’t have to listen to you.” She shook her head and turned her attention back to the young boy. “Now, I need you to open the void gates so the rest of the family can join us.”

              The boy looked away from her and didn’t speak a word.

              “Don’t grow a conscience now,” she argued, “surely the idea can be forced on you if you don’t want to comply.”

              “I… I don’t know how to open the rift.” The boy confessed in a rather unconvincing tone.

              “Don’t lie, now, lying isn’t nice.” Narsha pretended to be sweet, “Lucis said that if you played along with us, first, then you’d get to grow up again. Isn’t that what you want?”

              “More than anything!” he whined.

              “Then, let’s open up a door.” She smirked and turned to Lucis, “but first-” she snapped her fingers and in an instant Lucis was gone from sight, “let’s get you out of my sight.”

              When Lucis appeared, he was back at the place he had woken up from, and grew worried. Now that Angelus was far away from him, surely the curse would release too much energy at once. Immediately, Noctis sought his brother.

              “Noctis?” his voice was loud over the city and his brother heard his cries, flying up to greet him above the towering buildings.

              “Lucis.”

              “Brother, it’s Lucifer.”

              “What about him?” Noctis was tired of listening to his brother’s tales of woe. Repeatedly, throughout their lives, Lucis had ‘cried sheep’ and claimed something bad was happening only to trick him.

              “He’s gained enormous power, and I know he’s going to try and kill me. Will you help me?”

              Noctis wasn’t convinced and sighed, thinking he would return to the museum and forget that his brother even bothered him. But something in the distance caught his eye: dark clouds forming quickly over the city made him lose his focus on his brother, who turned to see what his brother had been staring at.

              A small opening appeared from within the clouds, and a man appeared to come out of it. Noctis drew closer to see who had arrived and his eyes grew wide, almost tearful, as he saw his older brother.

              “Angelus!”  Noctis called out as he went closer to him.

              “Noctis, no!” Lucis’ voice called out and Noctis paused for a moment when he heard it, waiting to see what their elder brother would do.

               In his hand he held a sword, one that he had when he was last alive.

              “Noctis, our brother isn’t in the right mind and I know that it’s my fault.” Lucis confessed and as he spoke, Angelus began to fly closer to the two of them.

              Noctis protected himself, by turning invisible and getting out of the way, but the panicking Lucis did not do so in time, and was struck down onto a nearby rooftop. The blow was powerful enough to knock him out.

              “So, for once, our youngest brother was right- you have lost your mind.” Noctis spoke and in his hand formed a sword of his own- the hilt glittering like the night stars and the blade as bright as daylight itself. In his left hand, a ball of pure dark matter- the inside resembling a black hole as it swirled within itself. The two began to fight.

              Swords clashed and pieces of stardust flew everywhere- coming from both Angelus and Noctis. The dark Engel knew, however, that if this truly was his brother, he was going to be outmatched: Angelus held the powers of both he and Lucis combined, and there was no way that he could defeat him, just as all those years ago Lucis couldn’t defeat him in full, either. He needed the Engel Crystal if he was going to put an end to it. Even if he did get the okay from Sooji, he still needed time in order to extract the Crystal safely, and use it, all the while Angelus would have to be distracted by something.

              “They’re going to hate me for this,” Noctis said and allowed the dark matter ball to disappear, forming a new one in his hand, and in the center showed a small sun. With a yell, Noctis threw it high into the air and it burst into a display of fireworks.

              “What kind of tricks have you been learning, Noctis?” Angelus spoke and drew nearer with his sword but Noctis stayed put, staring his brother down in the eye. Noctis was struck in the stomach with the sword but still concentrated on his brother as he did so.

              It was at that time that an arrow flew past Angelus’s ear, grazing the tip. He let go of the sword handle and turned to see who had shot at him- it was none other than Park, a fiery bow in hand. The orb that Noctis had put out was a call to help- and any Engel and their children in the area who see it were to assist. Park was the only one who responded.

              “Noctis!” Park yelled across the horizon to him with tears in his eyes as he drew another arrow into the bow, “Sooji said she agrees. I will create a distraction for you while you do what you have to.” Park struck Angelus and it burned him a little.

              Even though Park knew he was vastly out-powered by Angelus, he knew enough how to create a distraction and was willing to do so as long as Noctis needed. The boy drew a different arrow, a signal of his own, into the bow and shot it straight upwards before firing another arrow at Angelus. The arrow he shot upwards burst into a column of fire and it trapped Angelus in there for a moment- it also signaled help from his father, the Engel Ignis.

              When the column ceased, Angelus could see on the horizon that Ignis was hastily approaching, and turned his attention back on Park.

 

              Meanwhile, Noctis had pulled out the sword from him and healed himself temporarily with dark matter. He flew as fast as he could to the museum and ran inside, searching for Sooji, who was still in the presentation room.

              “Was what the young Mulciber told me, true?” Noctis huffed out of breath.

              Sooji turned around and nodded. “Do it.” She spoke faintly enough that if you weren’t listening you would have missed it, but Noctis could hear and he fell to his knees and embraced her.

              “My beloved child,” he spoke and instantly was in tears, “I promise you will return; I will find a way.”

              Holding onto her tightly, Noctis flew upwards, breaking the glass in one window and head off towards his home- where he first constructed Sooji.

              “Sir?” the HM called as he came rushing through the door holding her in his arms still, “Sooji what on earth?”

              “HM, I need you to send an important call to Jaejoong.”

              “What should I say, sir?”

              “Jaejoong needs to get here _now_!” he yelled as he ran down the flights of stairs into the deep reaches of the basement.

              “ _Sir_ , what is going on?”

              “Did you make that call?” he said as he rushed himself.

              “Yes, sir, Jaejoong is waiting downstairs for you.”

              “Damn time controllers.” Noctis commented as he opened the door to see the man standing there.

              “Nice to see you, too.” Jaejoong spoke.

              “I need your help, and you’re the only one I trust to do this.”

 

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

 

              Outside, the people in the city were evacuating themselves, for they feared for their life. Park was running out of things to distract Angelus with, and shooting him with another arrow seemed to send him into a blind rage. Ignoring everything else, Angelus flew at him with intense speeds, and Park, not being able to fly, was unable to run away fast enough. Angelus grabbed the boy by his arm and brought him up high and waited until Ignis was within reach.

              “You’ll bother me no more, boy!” Angelus’ twisted voice spoke and when he judged that the other Engel was close enough, he threw Park down onto the roof, sending him a few floors into the museum where he finally stopped.

              Ignis, having seen it, froze. “My son.” His voice quavered but immediately his voice burst into a flaming yell, “Agathangelus, Son of Solar and Luine, your must pay for your crime!”

              “Looks like hell himself came to visit me.” Angelus smiled.

              “I don’t know what Noctis’ intentions were, but mine isn’t to keep you alive.” Ignis spoke and he flew towards Angelus, his weapon in hand. Ignis’s sword was different, for the weapon was formed of a special metal that burned but was not consumed by the flame, and would burn as long as Ignis was alive- meaning it could be thrust into enemies and they would cook from the inside out. The two clashed and the power from the fight drew the attention of Ignis’ twin brother, who came to his aid seeing that the Engel was being overpowered by their former leader- combined their strength was just enough to hold him off for as long as Noctis needed.

              “This fight,” Noctis’ voice boomed, “is mine to have.”

              “Glad to see you didn’t cower in fear somewhere on the far reaches of the earth.” Angelus turned away from Ignis and Glacies, who had stopped fighting him once they saw that Noctis had returned.

              Ignis then turned to the museum, and looked at the destruction- the shape of his son still in the roof. He flew down into it to find his body. It was still laying at the bottom where it had stopped falling- almost to the basement floor. For the first time in thousands of years since Park’s brothers had been killed, Ignis began to weep. He gently picked up the body and felt that it was growing cold and even though he used a hot flame to try and revive him, the body only grew colder and his body stiffened as his molten heart was drying up.

 

              Angelus’ full attention was on Noctis, now, who held the Engel Crystal in his hand.

              “Is it still dripping in blood?” the Engel deeply laughed, “You’re darker than I thought.”

              “I’m only here to bring you to your formal self.”

              “It’s hardly like you to be holding the Crystal, though. Why not use it already?”

              “This isn’t for me.” He said as he drew closer to Angelus at a great speed.

              Angelus threw his brother down onto a nearby roof and the two began to wrestle, causing Noctis to lose his grip on the Crystal. Noctis was losing the fight, however, as Angelus continued to gain strength, but it was in one slipup that he was able to kick off his brother and grab the Crystal, and turning around, he thrust it into his brother’s chest with a great yell before freezing in fear- he had stabbed his own brother, breaking an oath he had taken long, long ago.

              Angelus began to laugh a little but Noctis still held on to the other end of it, tearful, and with all of his force and all of his power, Noctis broke the Crystal as it sat in his chest and the power that was held inside burst out in a great white light, sending Angelus to the floor and sending Noctis flying away from the blast. The light turned into a dark void, which resembled space- galaxies could be seen within it, stars and planets; Angelus was in the center of the void and the Crystal and all of the galaxies and stars were absorbed in him and the light went away.

              The air fell silent, for the two Engel lay on the ground side-by-side and both were motionless.  

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free, actually please do send comments or questions about anything you may be curious of! You are not a hindrance, nor are you bothering me! I promise, you are welcome to even send some criticism or thoughts about things! Anything will do, really!


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